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Pollination

All articles tagged with #pollination

New York graveyard hides a vast underground city of solitary bees
science24 days ago

New York graveyard hides a vast underground city of solitary bees

At East Lawn Cemetery in Ithaca, NY, researchers counted about 5.56 million solitary mining bees (Andrena regularis) nesting in the soil—roughly as many individuals as 200 honeybee hives—making it one of the largest known ground-nesting bee aggregations. Each female digs her own burrow, with no hive or queen, and the cemetery’s long-term undisturbed soil provides ideal habitat. The count highlights the ecological importance of unmanaged urban greenspace for pollinators, though the study notes it reflects bee numbers, not pollination output, and was published by Cornell researchers in Apidologie 2026.

via Space Daily|
#andrena-regularis#cemetery-habitat#ground-nesting
Patagonian giant bumblebee fights for survival amid invasive rivals
environment2 months ago

Patagonian giant bumblebee fights for survival amid invasive rivals

The Patagonian giant bumblebee Bombus dahlbomii, the region’s largest pollinator, is facing rapid declines as non-native European bumblebees (Bombus ruderatus and Bombus terrestris) outcompete it and bring pathogens; it also uniquely detects red flowers and is being highlighted as invertebrate of the year to raise awareness and conservation efforts.

via The Guardian|
#biodiversity#bombus-dahlbomii#environment
Avocado Flowers Flip Gender Daily, Revealing a Clocklike Genetic Switch
science2 months ago

Avocado Flowers Flip Gender Daily, Revealing a Clocklike Genetic Switch

Scientists have pinpointed the genetic basis of avocado temporal dichogamy—the daily switch between female and male flowers—driven by the SDMYB clock gene. Across hundreds of trees, A-type varieties open female flowers in the morning and male flowers in the afternoon, while B-types do the opposite. The SDMYB gene has two alleles; A-types carry one of each, B-types two recessives, enabling quick typing without flowering. Published in PNAS 2026, the finding can speed breeding and orchard design (e.g., using B-type pollinizers to boost A-type yields), though commercial Hass fruit remains an A-type, and gene editing remains years away.

via ScienceAlert|
#avocado#breeding#flowering
Avocados keep a 42-million-year polling schedule
science2 months ago

Avocados keep a 42-million-year polling schedule

Avocado flowers alternate between a female phase (receiving pollen) and a subsequent male phase (releasing pollen) over two days, a two-day cycle that has remained driven by the SDMYB gene for about 42 million years. Hass is an A-type variety, and breeders are now able to create B-type pollinizers that both pollinate and bear marketable fruit, offering higher yields with some trade‑offs in fruit quality and orchard management.

via Boing Boing|
#avocado#breeding#hass
Honey's Hidden Labor: Two Million Flowers and a World of Travel for a Pound
science2 months ago

Honey's Hidden Labor: Two Million Flowers and a World of Travel for a Pound

Producing a pound of honey is a massive cooperative feat: roughly two million flower visits by a colony, involving tens of thousands of foraging trips and a combined flight distance that researchers estimate between about 55,000 and 90,000 miles, far surpassing what any single bee does in a lifetime. The workers live only about 6–8 weeks, and the waggle dance helps them coordinate locations and distances to the best flowers, turning a jar into a record of collective labor rather than the work of one bee.

via Space Daily|
#bees#foraging#honey
Warm Winters Push North American Bee Swarms Forward, Upending Beekeeping
environment4 months ago

Warm Winters Push North American Bee Swarms Forward, Upending Beekeeping

North America’s 2026 bee swarm season began about 17 days earlier than last year, a shift linked to unusually warm winters and climate-driven changes in flowering that are accelerating bee activity; this follows years of record colony losses and, compounded by resilient varroa mites and competition with wild bees, raises concerns for pollination-dependent agriculture valued at roughly $15 billion and is prompting beekeepers to rethink seasonal management.

via The Guardian|
#beekeeping#bees#climate-change
Underground Empire: 5.5 Million Bees Nest in a New York Cemetery
science5 months ago

Underground Empire: 5.5 Million Bees Nest in a New York Cemetery

Researchers counting 3–8 million bees at East Lawn Cemetery in Ithaca, NY, estimate an average population of 5.5 million ground-nesting Andrena regularis. Using emergence traps over ~6,000 square meters, the study found males emerge first in April and highlighted nearby Cornell Orchards and sandy soil as key factors supporting this large, pesticide-free population. The work underscores cemeteries as biodiversity hotspots and pollinator habitats, and it launches a global citizen-science effort to document other ground-nesting bee populations.

via SciTechDaily|
#andrena-regularis#bees#biodiversity
Millions of ground-nesting bees found thriving beneath a cemetery
animals5 months ago

Millions of ground-nesting bees found thriving beneath a cemetery

Scientists discovered a massive underground colony of ground-nesting bees (Andrena regularis) beneath East Lawn Cemetery in Ithaca, New York, estimating 3.1 to 8 million bees emerged in a single season—enough activity to rival hundreds of honeybee hives—highlighting the crucial role of solitary bees in pollination and biodiversity and underscoring cemeteries as overlooked habitats that deserve protection; the study notes low parasitism and timing patterns in bee emergence that aid survival.

via Earth.com|
#andrena-regularis#animals#bees
Are Dead Wasps Hidden Inside Figs?
science1 year ago

Are Dead Wasps Hidden Inside Figs?

Most supermarket figs are bug-free and do not contain wasps, as many fig varieties can ripen without pollination by wasps, though some wild and certain cultivated figs rely on wasps for pollination, which is part of a complex mutualistic relationship essential for the reproduction of specific fig species.

via Live Science|
#figs#fruit#mutualism
Innovative Superfood and Probiotics Boost Honeybee Survival
science1 year ago

Innovative Superfood and Probiotics Boost Honeybee Survival

Researchers have developed a synthetic, pollen-replacing superfood for honey bees that could improve their health, survival, and pollination services, potentially saving declining bee populations and supporting global food security. The innovation, tested successfully in trials, aims to provide essential nutrients to bees in environments with poor natural pollen sources and is expected to be available in the U.S. by mid-2026.

via Indian Defence Review|
#bee-nutrition#colony-collapse#honey-bees