Squash Bee
Published: October 4, 2010, 12:00 am
Updated: October 7, 2010, 7:08 am
This article has been reviewed by the following Topic Editor:
Sidney Draggan Ph.D.Squash Bees
This article was written by By Jim Cane, USDA ARS, Bee Biology & Systematics Lab, Logan, Utah
Male Peponapis pruinosa. Courtesy USDA-ARS
Bee Biology and Systematics Lab.
Got squash? If so, you have the chance to see the most important floral specialists in agriculture, native solitary bees of two genera, Peponapis and Xenoglossa, the so-called "squash bees". Look at your squash’s flowers during the first few hours after sunrise. Male squash bees will be darting between flowers, searching for mates. By noon, they will be fast asleep in the withered flowers.
Xenoglossa spp. Courtesy of USDA-ARS
Bee Biology and Systematics Lab.
Females forage at the flowers of squashes, pumpkins and gourds, their sole pollen hosts. In contrast to like-sized honeybees, female squash bees carry their pollen dry in a brush of hairs on their hind legs. The most widespread species, Peponapis pruinosa, is found from Quebec southward into Mexico, wherever squashes are grown.
Squash bee. Credit: Holly Prendeville
at the University of Nebraska.
Squash bees are non-social but sometimes gregarious ground-nesters. Every female digs her own nest. The nest is a simple vertical tunnel terminated by a loose grouping of individual chambers a foot or two deep in the soil. Think of a pea in a thimble and you can envision the individual pollen ball (with a sausage-shaped bee egg) resting in the nest chamber.
Squash bees have been shown to be excellent pollinators of zucchini and butternut squashes, among others. If numerous, they thoroughly pollinate all available flowers, rendering later visits of honeybees superfluous. Before Europeans brought honeybees to the New World, squash bees were busy aiding the adoption, domestication, spread, and production of squashes and gourds by indigenous peoples throughout the Americas.
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U.S. Forest Service (Lead Author);Sidney Draggan Ph.D. (Topic Editor) "Squash Bee". In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth October 4, 2010; Last revised Date October 7, 2010; Retrieved May 21, 2013 <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Squash_Bee>
The Author
Established in 1905, the Forest Service is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Forest Service manages public lands in national forests and grasslands. Gifford Pinchot, the first Chief of the Forest Service, summed up the mission of the Forest Service— "to provide the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people in the long run." National forests and grasslands encompass 193 million acres of land, which is an area equivalent to the size of ... (Full Bio)
Squash Bees
This article was written by By Jim Cane, USDA ARS, Bee Biology & Systematics Lab, Logan, Utah
Male Peponapis pruinosa. Courtesy USDA-ARS
Bee Biology and Systematics Lab.
Got squash? If so, you have the chance to see the most important floral specialists in agriculture, native solitary bees of two genera, Peponapis and Xenoglossa, the so-called "squash bees". Look at your squash’s flowers during the first few hours after sunrise. Male squash bees will be darting between flowers, searching for mates. By noon, they will be fast asleep in the withered flowers.
Xenoglossa spp. Courtesy of USDA-ARS
Bee Biology and Systematics Lab.
Females forage at the flowers of squashes, pumpkins and gourds, their sole pollen hosts. In contrast to like-sized honeybees, female squash bees carry their pollen dry in a brush of hairs on their hind legs. The most widespread species, Peponapis pruinosa, is found from Quebec southward into Mexico, wherever squashes are grown.
Squash bee. Credit: Holly Prendeville
at the University of Nebraska.
Squash bees are non-social but sometimes gregarious ground-nesters. Every female digs her own nest. The nest is a simple vertical tunnel terminated by a loose grouping of individual chambers a foot or two deep in the soil. Think of a pea in a thimble and you can envision the individual pollen ball (with a sausage-shaped bee egg) resting in the nest chamber.
Squash bees have been shown to be excellent pollinators of zucchini and butternut squashes, among others. If numerous, they thoroughly pollinate all available flowers, rendering later visits of honeybees superfluous. Before Europeans brought honeybees to the New World, squash bees were busy aiding the adoption, domestication, spread, and production of squashes and gourds by indigenous peoples throughout the Americas.
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