Phylogenomics and biogeography of the small carpenter bees (Apidae: Xylocopinae: Ceratina).

Small carpenter bees in the genus Ceratina are behaviourally diverse, species-rich, and cosmopolitan, with over 370 species and a range including all continents except Antarctica. Here, we present the first comprehensive phylogeny of the genus based on ultraconserved element (UCE) phylogenomic data, covering a total of 185 ingroup specimens representing 22 of the 25 current subgenera. Our results support most recognized subgenera as natural groups, but we also highlight several groups in need of taxonomic revision - particularly the nominate subgenus Ceratina sensu stricto - and several clades that likely need to be described as new subgenera.

Pollinator visitation closely tracks diurnal patterns in pollen release.

Premise: Animal-pollinated plants face a high risk of pollen loss during its transfer. To limit the negative effect of pollen losses by pollen consumption and heterospecific transfer, plant species may adjust and stratify their pollen availability during the day (i.e.

Individual-level specialisation and interspecific resource partitioning in bees revealed by pollen DNA metabarcoding.

It is increasingly recognised that intraspecific variation in traits, such as morphology, behaviour, or diet is both ubiquitous and ecologically important. While many species of predators and herbivores are known to display high levels of between-individual diet variation, there is a lack of studies on pollinators. It is important to fill in this gap because individual-level specialisation of flower-visiting insects is expected to affect their efficiency as pollinators with consequences for plant reproduction.

Nesting of Ceratina nigrolabiata, a biparental bee.

Biparental care is very rare in insects, and it was well-documented in only one bee species to this date - Ceratina nigrolabiata. However, biparental care was only recently discovered in this species, and detailed description of natural history of this species is missing. Here, we describe the nesting cycle of C.

Only mothers feed mature offspring in European Ceratina bees.

Parental care directed to adult offspring is uncommon in animals. Such parental care has been documented in Xylocopinae bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Moreover, some Ceratina bees (Xylocopinae) are known to feed mature siblings, and feeding of mature siblings is achieved by dwarf eldest daughters when mothers died.

Polyandrous bee provides extended offspring care biparentally as an alternative to monandry based eusociality.

Parental care behavior evolves to increase the survival of offspring. When offspring care becomes complicated for ecological reasons, cooperation of multiple individuals can be beneficial. There are two types of cooperative care: biparental care and worker (helper)-based care (e.

Major benefits of guarding behavior in subsocial bees: implications for social evolution.

Parental care is a behavior that increases the growth and survival of offspring, often at a cost to the parents' own survival and/or future reproduction. In this study, we focused on nest guarding, which is one of the most important types of extended parental care; we studied this behavior in two solitary bee species of the genus with social ancestors. We performed the experiment of removing the laying female, who usually guards the nest after completing its provisioning, to test the effects of nest guarding on the offspring survival and nest fate.

Conspecific and heterospecific plant densities at small-scale can drive plant-pollinator interactions.

Generalist pollinators are important in many habitats, but little research has been done on small-scale spatial variation in interactions between them and the plants that they visit. Here, using a spatially explicit approach, we examined whether multiple species of flowering plants occurring within a single meadow showed spatial structure in their generalist pollinator assemblages. We report the results for eight plant species for which at least 200 individual visits were recorded.