Variation in Foraging Preferences by Bumble Bees Through Time with a Focus on Bombus affinis Conservation

Abstract

Though bumble bees provide valuable pollination services, they are declining worldwide (Goulson, Lye and Darvill, 2008; Colla and Packer, 2008).

Of these species, the rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) was placed on the endangered species list in March 2017, the first of its genus to be on this list (FWS, 2017). Little is known about how the foraging behavior of bumble bees varies through time. Exploring this topic may aid in the discovery of plant preference for specific Bombus species.

To fill this gap, we constructed plant-pollinator networks from photographic surveys taken at the UW-Madison Arboretum.