Co-introductions of managed bees and their diseases contribute to native bee species declines

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

3:20 PM – 3:40 PM PT

Location: Vancouver Convention Centre, Meeting Room 203

Presenting Author(s)

Kathryn A. LeCroy (she/her/hers)

Postdoctoral Associate
Cornell University
Madison, Wisconsin

Co-author(s)

Tobias G. Mueller

PhD Student
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York
CA

Chris Allgyer

Virginia Master Naturalist Program, Virginia
PA

Paxton Allgyer

Virginia Master Naturalist Program, Virginia
GK

Gena Kiser

Virginia Master Naturalist Program, Virginia
PM

Phillip Meeks

Wise County Virginia Cooperative Extension Agency
Clintwood, Ohio
EW

Elizabeth Walker

Virginia Master Naturalist Program, Virginia

Co-Author(s)

Tory Hendry

Assistant Professor
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York

Co-author(s)

Scott McArt

Assistant Professor
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York

Introduced, managed bees confer significant pollination benefits to agricultural systems, but a risk of introducing non-native species into new ecosystems is the co-introduction of pathogens along with them. Pathogen spillover to wild, native bees may then drive native bee species declines. From documenting prevalence of fungal disease across the Commonwealth of Virginia in the nests of both non-native and native mason bee species (Osmia), we have found evidence for species of fungi originally described in Japan(Ascosphaera naganensis and Ascosphaera fusiformis) present in native Virginia mason bees, Osmia lignaria and Osmia georgica.In this same region, these two native Osmia species have been experiencing significant declines in pan trap catch abundances over fifteen years of monitoring with a concurrent increasing abundance of Japanese Osmia taurus. For further investigation into mechanism, we partnered with community scientists to examine susceptibility of co-introduced fungal disease for native mason bees in a larval bioassay experiment across different nutritional contexts.