
Details:See the story in Agricultural Research magazine. Cranberry Chores Dont Bog Down These BeesBy Marcia
Wood May 3, 2000Two species of native bees may prove ideal for helping
Americas domesticated honey bees with the daunting task of pollinating
cranberry plants. An average acre of cranberry bog has about 20 million
flowers. Each of these small, white blooms must be visited at least once by a
pollinating insect in order for the flowers to form ripe, crimson berries. Agricultural Research
Service scientists in Logan, Utah, and their colleagues from
Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc.,
Lakeville, Mass., are scrutinizing the pollinating skills of a small,
steely-blue bee known as Osmia atriventris. This insect belongs to a
family of native bees that nest in holes in stems, branches, fenceposts, tree
trunks and other aboveground cavities. And the scientists are experimenting with another promising
native, a honey bee-sized leaf cutter called Megachile addenda. The
leaf-cutting bee makes its shallow home in the sandy bottom of cranberry bogs.
James H. Cane of the ARS Bee Biology and Systematics
Laboratory at Logan, is leading the work as part of a cooperative research
and development agreement between ARS and Ocean Spray, the countrys
largest cranberry-grower cooperative. A bee museum? Native bees are gentle and hardworking. They may help offset the
loss of domesticated honey bees from attack by varroa or tracheal mites, small
hive beetles, or microbes that cause devastating diseases such as foulbrood or
chalkbrood. An
articlein the May issue of the ARS monthly journal, Agricultural Research, tells more
about the Logan research teams studies of native bees as alternative
pollinators. ARS is USDAs chief
research agency. Scientific contact: James H. Cane, ARS
Bee Biology and Systematics
Laboratory, 5310 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322; phone (435) 797-3879, fax
(435 )797-0461, [email protected]. U.S. Department of Agriculture |