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Data from: On-farm wildflower plantings generate opposing reproductive outcomes for solitary and bumble bee species

Metadata Updated: May 8, 2025

Pollinator habitat can be planted on farms to enhance floral and nesting resources, and subsequently, pollinator populations. There is ample evidence linking such plantings to greater pollinator abundance on farms, but less is known about their effects on pollinator reproduction. We placed Bombus impatiens Cresson (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and Megachile rotundata (F.) (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) nests out on 19 Mid-Atlantic farms in 2018, where half (n=10) the farms had established wildflower plantings and half (n=9) did not. Bombus impatiens nests were placed at each farm in spring and mid-summer and repeatedly weighed to capture colony growth. We quantified the relative production of reproductive castes and assessed parasitism rates by screening for conopid fly parasitism and Nosema spores within female workers. We also released M. rotundata cocoons at each farm in spring and collected new nests and emergent adult offspring over the next year, recording female weight as an indicator of reproductive potential and quantifying Nosema parasitism and parasitoid infection rates. Bombus impatiens nests gained less weight and contained female workers with Nosema spore loads over 150x greater on farms with wildflower plantings. In contrast, M. rotundata female offspring weighed more on farms with wildflower plantings and marginally less on farms with honey bee hives. We conclude that wildflower plantings likely enhance reproduction in some species, but that they could also enhance microsporidian parasitism rates in susceptible bee species. It will be important to determine how wildflower planting benefits can be harnessed while minimizing parasitism in wild and managed bee species.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: Creative Commons CCZero

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Dates

Metadata Created Date January 31, 2025
Metadata Updated Date May 8, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from USDA JSON

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date January 31, 2025
Metadata Updated Date May 8, 2025
Publisher Agricultural Research Service
Maintainer
Identifier 10.15482/USDA.ADC/28232858.v1
Data Last Modified 2025-04-16
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 005:20, 005:18
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 21f56a31-9979-4aff-a7e6-7a3486a988ff
Harvest Source Id d3fafa34-0cb9-48f1-ab1d-5b5fdc783806
Harvest Source Title USDA JSON
License https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -76.261596679688, 36.785824847597, -76.261596679688, 38.482261257638, -74.976196289063, 38.482261257638, -74.976196289063, 36.785824847597, -76.261596679688, 36.785824847597}
Program Code 005:040
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 97c31e74a7f24dc5d7392e9761b9a7ac0771bd99a130b3623d4acc3152d457d0
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -76.261596679688, 36.785824847597, -76.261596679688, 38.482261257638, -74.976196289063, 38.482261257638, -74.976196289063, 36.785824847597, -76.261596679688, 36.785824847597}
Temporal 2018-04-01/2020-08-01

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