Harvard Forest Symposium Abstract 2012

Title: Flight physiology and spatial foraging patterns of bumblebees
Primary Author: James Crall (Harvard University)
Additional Authors: Elizabeth Crone (Tufts University)
Abstract:
Bumblebees are keystone pollinators in many ecosystems and forage for floral resources in the forest canopy as well as near the ground. Since they can also be studied in the lab, bumblebees are an ideal system for understanding the role of physiological limitations on foraging ecology. Our preliminary work on the flight energetics of bumblebees (Bombus impatiens) indicates that the relative cost of ascending flight scales with body size and is relatively more costly for larger bees. From this, we predict that individual foragers within a bumblebee colony will differ in their preferred foraging patterns based on body size. In the summer of 2012, we will test this prediction by placing flowers with artificial fluorescent dyes at known vertical and horizontal distances from the hive. We will then remove pollen from bees of different sizes as they return to the hive to investigate foraging preferences as a function of body size.
Research Category: Physiological Ecology, Population Dynamics, and Species Interactions

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