Location: Pollinating Insect-Biology, Management, Systematics Research
Project Number: 2080-21000-019-050-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: May 1, 2022
End Date: Dec 31, 2025
Objective:
1. Use Thermal imagery technology to quantify foraging behavior in general and compare behaviors exhibited by bees exposed to sulfoxaflor compared to unexposed bees.
2. Conduct an annual census of the alkali bee population abundance in Walla Walla County, WA.
3. Collect alkali bees, ALCB, and Agapostemon spp adults, larva, and pupae for analysis of the various pathogens that may be shared among these bee species.
4. Conduct topical direct contact bioassays with new candidate insecticides on ALCB and AB, notpreviously tested.
5. Test the establishment of physical barriers to prevent adult migration of Lygus from fields of alfalfa
produced for forage into fields of alfalfa produced for seed and how many bees are impacted by these barriers.
6. Conduct an annual census of the alkali bee population abundance in Walla Walla County, WA for 2024.
7. Conduct a species-level phylogeny of the North American Nomia to provide a framework for estimating the population-related metrics for N. melanderi in managed bee beds.
8. Conduct topical direct contact bioassays with candidate acaricides on ALCB and AB.
Approach:
Objective 1. Uses established methodology.
Objective 2. Test the establishment of physical barriers to prevent adult migration of Lygus from fields of alfalfa produced for forage into fields of alfalfa produced for seed and how many bees are impacted by these barriers. Modeled after successful studies in Lygus management in cotton production in the Southwest and stink bug management in orchard systems in Washington State, we will construct barriers from hop poles and insect netting between alfalfa forage and alfalfa seed fields. This test will be conducted in four commercial alfalfa seed fields located near the Touchet-Gardena area of Walla Walla County, Washington. Three replicate barriers of 50 feet (ft) in length will be constructed along the border of each field of alfalfa seed and an adjacent forage field. Hop poles, which are used to support the vine canopy of hop plants in hop yards, are a locally available product that, at 19 feet in length and 5 inches in diameter, resemble small, short telephone poles. The hop poles will be set three feet into the ground at approximately 25-ft intervals and the soil around the base will be tamped for support. Metal wire will be suspended across the top in an x-wise fashion between each pole and a wire rope will be strung along the tops of each pole and fastened with staples. The posts will be braced using 2 × 4” lumber bolted 6 ft from the ground to the posts on one end, and 2 ft from the ground to metal anchors on the other. The hop poles at each end of the barrier will be further secured with a wire attached to an anchor in the ground.
Objective 3, uses methodology used previously.
Objective 4, Conduct a species-level phylogeny of the North American Nomia to provide a framework for estimating the population-related metrics for N. melanderi in managed bee beds. To comprehensively assess the recent natural history of Nomia melanderi, we propose to develop a state-of-the-art molecular phylogeny of the North American Nomiinae, including enhancing and protecting populations of alfalfa seed pollinators that are representative sampling of Nomia melanderi and Nomia howardi. To this end, we will use low-coverage, whole-genome sequencing, with the aim to sequence each of the 10 described species, and embed the newly generated sequence data in a recently published, global framework of Nomiinae phylogeny (Bossert et al. 2024). This will allow us to establish the timeframe of Nomia evolution in North America, the species’ biogeographic patterns, and to assess if Nomia melanderi and Nomia howardi are likely one or two separate species. Lastly, this new phylogeny will serve as a critical framework for future population genetic research on Nomia melanderi.
