Kierat Justyna, Filipiak Michał, Szentgyörgyi Hajnalka, Woyciechowski Michal
Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 7, 30-387 Kraków, Poland.
Department of Pomology and Apiculture, Faculty of Biotechnology and Horticulture, University of Agriculture in Kraków, Al. 29. Listopada 54, 31-425 Kraków, Poland.
J Insect Behav. 2017;30(4):385-393. doi: 10.1007/s10905-017-9626-0. Epub 2017 Jun 24.
Predation at the nesting site can significantly affect solitary bees' reproductive success. We tested female red mason bees' ( L.) acceptance of potential nesting sites, some of which were marked with cues coming from predated conspecifics (crushed bees) or from a predator itself (rodent excreta). In our experiment, females did not avoid nests marked with either of the two predator cues. We suggest that bee females do not recognize these two cues as risky. Alternatively, costs of abandoning natal aggregation might be too high compared with any perceived predation risk of staying. Moreover, the presence of crushed bees can provide positive information about the presence of conspecifics and, possibly, information about a nesting aggregation that may be preferred by bees when choosing a nesting site.
巢穴处的捕食行为会显著影响独居蜜蜂的繁殖成功率。我们测试了雌性红壁蜂（Osmia bicornis）对潜在巢穴的接受程度，其中一些巢穴带有来自被捕食同种个体（碾碎的蜜蜂）或捕食者自身（啮齿动物粪便）的线索。在我们的实验中，雌性蜜蜂并未避开带有这两种捕食者线索之一的巢穴。我们认为，雌性蜜蜂并未将这两种线索识别为危险信号。或者，与留在原处可能察觉到的捕食风险相比，放弃出生地聚集的代价可能过高。此外，碾碎的蜜蜂的存在可以提供有关同种个体存在的积极信息，并且可能提供有关蜜蜂在选择筑巢地点时可能偏好的筑巢聚集区的信息。
