| Royal Entomological Society meeting
I went to a meeting yesterday about Pollinating species. There were a series of interesting talks and I had a lovely day.
I thought I would pass on a few interesting nuggets of information that I picked up during the talks.
Solitary bees seem to be particularly important in increasing the seed set in Hawthorns with those hawthorns located in proximity to solitary bee nests producing more fruit.
Bumblebee workers will visit other nests and some will move in, even when the new nest is 60m away. Some will actually get involved in helping and some will lay eggs (which always produce males) and some will start off helping before later laying eggs.
Timing can be key in bee observation at flowers. Bees (particularly it seems honey bees) will often visit flowers almost exclusively in the peak period when pollen is produced - which may amount to a slim two hour period only. So don't assume when looking at a plant with no bees that it isn't of value - you may just be looking at the wrong time of day or you might be wondering where have all the bees gone compared to last year when actually you are looking at your flowerbed at a different time of day to previous years (obviously weather and temp also comes into play but are not the only controlling features).
Rhododendron isn't necessarily bad for pollinating insects. In a study in Ireland the pollen was found to be richer and potentially more valuable to species visiting for the pollen. It also didn't appear to reduce the level sof pollination in native species growing in the same area. I seem to recall that over 100 pollinating species were recorded visiting the Rhode but I might be worng in that recollection.
It was a very interesting meeting and I can strongly recommend these to anyone with an interest in Invertebrates, I shall certainly be going to more. They are very cheap too - this one cost me a tenner! So you don't have to worry about costs too much either. It wa also good to see plenty of younger folk there. There are definately more entomologists coming up through the ranks.  |