Honeybee collecting pollen from Hypoestes aristata. © R. Tropek
Our short note on competition between two abundant species of eusocial bees, Apis mellifera (honeybee) and Meliplebeia ogouensis, in the Bamenda Highlands, Cameroon, has just been published in the Sociobiology journal. Whilst studying foraging patterns of the twoo bee species, we observed relatively high partitioning of visited flowers among the two species. Both species are considered as generalists, but at least in the short term their floral preferences are specialised and almost do not overlap. However, these preferences change phenologically, as well well as inter-anually.
Full citation: Tropek R., Padyšáková E., Janeček Š. (2018) Floral resources partitioning by two co-occurring eusocial bees in an Afromontane landscape. Sociobiology 65: 527-530.