Nesting Biology of Osmia cornifrons: Implications for Population Management

The Japanese hornfaced bee, Osmia cornifrons (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) is a palearctic mason bee managed for the pollination of early season fruit crops such as apple and blueberry. Since its adoption as a managed pollinator in Japan during the 1940s, a large body of literature has amassed with the goal of enhancing O. cornifrons management practices. This research makes important contributions to that literature in two ways. First, the research describes the in-nest relationship of O. cornifrons and the cleptoparasitic mite pest Chaetodactylus krombeini. Distribution of male and female O. cornifrons and of C. krombeini was determined using linear and non-linear regression analysis. Results indicated that C. krombeini is more frequently found in the cells of female O. cornifrons and that female O. cornifrons suffer greater mortality than male O. cornifrons due to C. krombeini. Second, the research describes trends in O. cornifrons activity resulting from abiotic factors by utilizing videography techniques. Osmia cornifrons daily activity was measured as the number of trips initiated from the nest every hour. The effects of time of day, temperature, and precipitation on O. cornifrons activity were determined using non-linear regression analysis and correlation analysis. Results of this study showed that O. cornifrons activity is limited days above 13.9 °C without rain, between the hours of 8:00am and 8:00pm. In addition, the videography techniques described in this research provide a new methodology for the study of solitary nesting bees