The increasing demand for insect-pollinated crops highlights the need for crop pollination paradigms that include all available pollinators. In North America, Cucurbita crops (pumpkin, squash) depend on both wild (solitary and Bombus spp.: Hymenoptera: Apidae) and managed honey bees (Apis mellifera L. 1758: Hymenoptera: Apidae) for pollination. Temporal and spatial differences in abundance may determine which bee taxa are the most important pollinators of Cucurbita crops. We surveyed bees visiting Cucurbita crop flowers on 19 farms over four years (2015–2018) during the crop flowering period (July 1–August 30 from 06:00–12:00). All the farms surveyed had hoary squash bees (Eucera pruinosa (Say, 1867), and most also had some combination of honey bees, bumble bees (Bombus spp.), or other wild bees present on their Cucurbita crop flowers. All four bee taxa were present on about two-thirds of farms. Spatially and temporally, wild bees were more abundant on Cucurbita crop flowers than managed honey bees. Hoary squash bees were the most abundant wild bees, maintaining their abundance relative to other wild bee taxa year-over-year. Male hoary squash bees were both more frequently and consistently seen visiting crop flowers than females in all years. Peak activity of hoary squash bees and bumble bees coincided with the daily crop pollination window, whereas peak activity of honey bees and other wild bees occurred after that window. In addition to elucidating the ecological interactions among wild and managed pollinators on Cucurbita crops, our work provides a novel practical way to evaluate pollinator abundance using a crop-centered benchmark framework.

中文翻译：

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Hoary Squash Bees (Eucera pruinosa: Hymenoptera: Apidae) 为安大略省的葫芦科作物提供丰富可靠的授粉服务（加拿大）

对昆虫授粉作物日益增长的需求凸显了对包括所有可用授粉媒介的作物授粉范式的需求。在北美，南瓜属作物（南瓜、南瓜）依靠野生（单生和熊蜂属：膜翅目：蜜蜂科）和受管理的蜜蜂（Apis mellifera L. 1758：膜翅目：蜜蜂科）进行授粉。丰度的时空差异可能决定哪些蜜蜂类群是葫芦科作物最重要的传粉者。在作物开花期（7 月 1 日至 8 月 30 日，06:00-12:00），我们调查了 19 个农场在四年（2015-2018 年）期间访问南瓜作物花卉的蜜蜂。所有接受调查的农场都有白南瓜蜂 (Eucera pruinosa (Say, 1867)，而且大多数农场的南瓜花上也有蜜蜂、大黄蜂 (Bombus spp.) 或其他野生蜜蜂的组合。所有四种蜜蜂类群都存在于大约三分之二的农场中。在空间和时间上，南瓜作物花朵上的野生蜜蜂比管理的蜜蜂更丰富。白南瓜蜂是最丰富的野生蜜蜂，与其他野生蜜蜂分类群相比，它们的数量与去年同期相比保持了丰富。在所有年份中，雄性白壁球蜂访问作物花卉的频率和持续性都高于雌性。白南瓜和大黄蜂的活动高峰与作物每日授粉窗口一致，而蜜蜂和其他野生蜜蜂的活动高峰发生在该窗口之后。除了阐明野生和管理授粉媒介对葫芦科作物的生态相互作用外，我们的工作还提供了一种使用以作物为中心的基准框架来评估授粉媒介丰度的新实用方法。