IISER TVM Centre for Research and Education in Ecology and Evolution (ICREEE), School of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India.
J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2019 Jun;205(3):387-398. doi: 10.1007/s00359-019-01323-7. Epub 2019 Mar 6.
Large carpenter bees are charismatic and ubiquitous flower visitors in the tropics and sub-tropics. Unlike honeybees and bumblebees that have been popular subjects of extensive studies on their neuroethology, behaviour and ecology, carpenter bees have received little attention. This review integrates what is known about their foraging behaviour as well as sensory, physiological and cognitive adaptations and is motivated by their versatility as flower visitors and pollinators. This is evident from their extremely generalist foraging and adeptness at handling diverse flower types as legitimate pollinators and as illegitimate nectar robbers. They purportedly use traplining to forage between isolated patches and are long-distance flyers over several kilometres suggesting well-developed spatial learning, route memory and navigational capabilities. They have a broad range of temperature tolerance and thermoregulatory capabilities which are likely employed in their forays into crepuscular and nocturnal time periods. Such temporal extensions into dim-light periods invoke a suite of visual adaptations in their apposition optics. Thus, we propose that carpenter bees are an excellent though understudied group for exploring the complex nature of plant-pollinator mutualisms from ecological and mechanistic perspectives.
大型木匠蜂是热带和亚热带地区极具魅力且无处不在的花卉访客。与已成为神经行为学、行为和生态学广泛研究热门课题的蜜蜂和熊蜂不同，木匠蜂受到的关注较少。本综述整合了有关它们觅食行为以及感官、生理和认知适应的知识，其动机是它们作为花卉访客和传粉者的多功能性。这从它们极其通用的觅食方式以及处理各种花卉类型的能力可以明显看出，它们是合法的传粉者，也是非法的花蜜掠夺者。据称，它们使用轨迹线在孤立的斑块之间觅食，并且能够在数公里外远距离飞行，这表明它们具有良好的空间学习、路线记忆和导航能力。它们具有广泛的温度容忍度和体温调节能力，这可能使它们在黄昏和夜间时段进行觅食。这种时间向暗淡光时段的扩展在它们的并列光学中引起了一系列视觉适应。因此，我们提出木匠蜂是一个极好的但研究不足的群体，可以从生态和机械的角度探索植物-传粉者相互关系的复杂性质。
