ARS | Publication request: The naturalization of the oil collecting bee Centris nitida (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Centrini), a potential pollinator of selected native, ornamental and invasive plants in Florida

Submitted to: Florida Entomologist
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: January 3, 2008
Publication Date: March 3, 2008
Publisher's URL: http://www.bioone.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&issn=0015-4040&volume=91&issue=01&page=101
Citation: Pemberton, R.W., Liu, H. 2008. The naturalization of the oil collecting bee Centris nitida (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Centrini), a potential pollinator of selected native, ornamental and invasive plants in Florida. Florida Entomologist, Vol. 91, Issue 1, March 2008, pgs. 101-109.

Interpretive Summary: Invasive species constitute one of the major threats to agriculture and the environment. Foreign plants and animals frequently naturalize in Florida, and some become serious pests. We report the naturalization of a neoptropical, oil collecting bee (Centris nitida) in Florida. After discovering the bee in southern Florida, we determined how to distinguish it from Florida"s two native Centris species. We surveyed southern Florida to define its distribution and determine the flower species it visits. Centris nitida adults can be separated from the native Centris by their distinctive facial markings and by their smaller size. This bee"s yellow and black coloration separates it from the brown colored C. errans, which also occurs in southern Florida. Centris nitida appears to be limited to Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties in southeastern Florida. It is a polyletic, oil-collecting bee, observed to visit flowers of 25 species in eight plant families, including eight oil reward flower species in the Malpighiaceae, and 10 species of buzz pollinated flowers in the bean and nightshade families. Centris nitida may have environmental impacts through its potential pollination of selected invasive, native and ornamental plants. It may also have negative competitive interactions with native Centris and other bees.

Technical Abstract: The neotropical bee Centris nitida, recorded also from southern Arizona, has naturalized in southeastern Florida. This furry yellow and black bee has been confused with the similar C. lanosa, a native bee restricted to northern Florida and the Southwest and adjacent Mexico. Female C. nitida are smaller than those of both C. lanosa and C. errans, a furry brown-colored native Centris which is sympatric with C. nitida in southern Florida. The three Centris bees now occurring in Florida are readily separated by their distinctive facial markings. Centris nitida is a polyletic, oil-collecting bee observed to visit flowers of 25 species in eight plant families, including eight oil reward flower species in the Malpighiaceae, and 10 species of buzz pollinated flowers in the Fabaceae and Solanaceae in southern Florida. Centris nitida may have environmental impacts through pollination of selected invasive, native and ornamental plants, as well possible competition with the sympatric native C. errans, because both collect oil from the sole native oil flower species in southern Florida, Byrsonima lucida.