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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fargo, North Dakota » Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center » Insect Genetics and Biochemistry Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #365503
Research Project: Cryopreservation of Bee Germplasm Research

Location: Insect Genetics and Biochemistry Research

Title: Let me out: Effects of offspring cell position on emergence patterns of solitary, cavity-nesting bee, Megachile rotundata

Author
item Debardlabon, Korie
item Yocum, George
item Rinehart, Joe
item GREENLEE, KENDRA - North Dakota State University

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/24/2019
Publication Date: 11/17/2019
Citation: Debardlabon, K.M., Yocum, G.D., Rinehart, J.P., Greenlee, K.J. 2019. Let me out: Effects of offspring cell position on emergence patterns of solitary, cavity-nesting bee, Megachile rotundata [abstract]. Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting. Nov. 17-20, 2019. St. Louis, MO. Poster No. D3231.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Megachile rotundata is a solitary, cavity-nesting, bee. Female M. rotundata build brood cells out of cut leaf pieces. Each brood cell is filled with a mixture of pollen and nectar and a single egg and then capped with more leaf pieces. Nests are composed of multiple brood cells, built in series within a cavity where offspring undergo juvenile development. Females lay eggs that will become females in the brood cells in the back of the nest and eggs that will become males in brood cells in the front of the nest. Interestingly, from disarticulated brood cells of unknown cell position, adult bees emerge over a period of approximately 10 days, with male M. rotundata emerging 1-3 days before the first female emerges. Although brood cells built last typically contain males, it is unknown what effect cell position has on emergence. To test the hypothesis that M. rotundata in brood cells at the front of the nest emerge before those in the back, we used M. rotundata nests collected last summer, with brood cells from known cell positions and a custom-built apparatus to record the exact date and time of adult emergence from each brood cell. We predicted that males would emerge first and bees from cells that were built last would emerge earlier than others regardless of sex. Understanding the role cell position plays in adult offspring emergence of M. rotundata will help understand the maternal contribution to the regulation of offspring development.