I observed a couple of two-spotted sunflower bees, Melissodes bimaculatus, foraging for pollen on this Floriani Red Flint corn in Boulder, CO. While it may seem strange, I observe bees foraging on corn and other grass for pollen fairly frequently. These could provide important resources if other host plants are scarce or may be used to supplement pollen provisions. These two bees returned repeatedly and filled their scopa up each time. You can easily see the yellow corn pollen packed onto their hind legs.
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8/8/2018 08:28:14 pm
Thank you for sharing. Bee use of grass pollen is an interesting topic. I have seen stingless bees (Melopinini) and Apis mellifera gather pollen from grasses. Dino Martin has written on this topic (location Kenya), and I would like to see a global overview, literature/observation summary, published.
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Adrian Carper I am a Postdoctoral Associate at CU-Boulder and have lead a number of projects studying patterns of native bee diversity in Colorado. Please enjoy your visit and contact me if you have any questions.
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