Flower diversity and the reproduction of solitary bees

Post contributed by Jimena Dorado

A female solitary bee Megachile leucographa building a nest in one of our wooden trap-nests.

A paper evaluating whether diverse flower communities favor pollinator reproduction just came out in PeerJ. This paper came out from my PhD thesis, in which I was mentored by Diego Vázquez. We had previously found that diverse flower communities are more stable in floral resource production along the flowering season, but the question of how the diversity and stability of resources affect pollinator reproduction remained open. You will find here some unexpected, intriguing results! Check it out!