Evidence for competition between honeybees and bumblebees; effects on bumblebee worker size

By Dave Goulson, Kate R. Sparrow. Journal of Insect Conservation, 2009

173 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Numerous studies suggest that honeybees may compete with native pollinators where introduced as non-native insects. Here we examine evidence for competition between honeybees and four bumblebee species in Scotland, a region that may be within the natural range of honeybees, but where domestication greatly increases the honeybee population. We examined mean thorax widths (a reliable measure of body size) of workers of Bombus pascuorum, B. lucorum, B. lapidarius and B. terrestris at sites with and without honeybees. Workers of all four species were significantly smaller in areas with honeybees. We suggest that reduced worker size is likely to have implications for bumblebee colony success. These results imply that, for conservation purposes, some restrictions should be considered with regard to placing honeybee hives in or near areas where populations of rare bumblebee species persist.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Genetics, Insect Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/cb275343c3c1c4b1a986b27b1e725a0195bfb16c

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Citations in the corpus

Crop flower visitation by honeybees, bumblebees and solitary bees: Behavioural differences and diversity responses to landscape (2013, background): “Certainly negative competitive interactions are known to occur between honeybees and bumblebees, resulting in reduced bumblebee body size (Goulson and Sparrow, 2009).”
Massively Introduced Managed Species and Their Consequences for Plant–Pollinator Interactions (2017, background): “Goulson and Sparrow (2009) showed that the introduction of honeybees decreased the average body size of native bumblebees, a phenomenon observed when a sudden shortage of local food resources occurs, e.g. towards the end of the season.”
A masterpiece of evolution – Oecophylla weaver ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) (2009, background): “Thus, honey bees such as Apis mellifera have a much more elaborate social organization than bumble bees, but the life cycle of the latter bees enables them to survive in higher latitudes than can honey bees (GOULSON & SPARROW 2009).”
Flower-strip agri-environment schemes provide diverse and valuable summer flower resources for pollinating insects (2018, background): “Honeybees can be very competitive for flower resources, reducing the availability of flower resources for wild bee population in a radius up to one km around the apiary (Pyke and Balzer 1985; Paini 2004; Goulson and Sparrow 2009; Herbertsson et al.”
Bee declines driven by combined stress from parasites, pesticides, and lack of flowers (2015, background): “This can result in a reduction in the size of bumblebee workers (101) and reduced reproductive success of bumblebee colonies (102).”
Pollination services in the UK: how important are honeybees? (2011, background): “Nevertheless, the use of any managed pollinators should be undertaken with considerable caution as their release can influence forage resources (Goulson and Sparrow, 2009), disease prevalence (Colla et al , 2006) and population size (Stubbs and Drummond, 2001) in nearby wild pollinator populations.”
Patterns of pollinator turnover and increasing diversity associated with urban habitats (2017, background): “Some authors have shown a negative impact of honey bees on native bee foraging and reproduction (Thomson 2004; Paini and Roberts 2005; Goulson and Sparrow 2009; Hudewenz and Klein 2015), whereas others have failed to detect any impact (reviewed in Paini 2004).”
Collateral effects of beekeeping: Impacts on pollen-nectar resources and wild bee communities (2016, background): “Other studies have found that bumblebee 395 colonies produce smaller workers in areas with managed honey bees, probably due to 396 pollen/nectar scarcity (Elbgami et al., 2014; Goulson & Sparrow, 2009).”