title: Bee Community of Commercial Potato Fields in Michigan and Bombus impatiens Visitation to Neonicotinoid-Treated Potato Plants.
abstract: We conducted a bee survey in neonicotinoid-treated commercial potato fields using bowl and vane traps in the 2016 growing season. Traps were placed outside the fields, at the field edges, and 10 and 30 m into the fields. We collected 756 bees representing 58 species, withLasioglossumspp. comprising 73% of all captured bees. We found sevenBombusspp., of whichB. impatienswas the only known visitor of potato flowers in our region. The majority of the bees (68%) were collected at the field edges and in the field margins. Blue vane traps caught almost four-times as many bees and collected 30% more species compared to bowl traps. Bee communities did not differ across trap locations but they were different among trap types. We testedB. impatiensvisitation to neonicotinoid treated and untreated potato flowers in field enclosures. The amount of time bees spent at flowers and the duration of visits were not significantly different between the two treatments. Our results demonstrate that a diverse assemblage of bees is associated with an agroecosystem dominated by potatoes despite the apparent lack of pollinator resources provided by the crop. We found no difference inB. impatiensforaging behavior on neonicotinoid-treated compared to untreated plants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. a.lynnbuchanan@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Amanda L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Buchanan
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. Jason.Gibbs@umanitoba.ca.
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gibbs
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. lkomondy@msu.edu.
authors.forename: Lidia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Komondy
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. szendrei@msu.edu.
authors.forename: Zsofia
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Szendrei
keywords: Bombus spp.; Lasioglossum spp.; Solanum tuberosum; blue vane trap; bowl trap