Caring for Pollinators - Bundesamt für Naturschutz

Roubik Small bees have a big job
How ‘safe’ and ‘stable’ is a protected forest? In the Americas, all
protected forests, like this one in the Chagres National Park of
Panama, have been invaded by exotic honey bees from Africa or
Europe. The ‘big’ question is whether invasive bees are more likely
to enrich or threaten such natural ecosystems.
Are honey bees worth the ‘risk’?
What do they normally visit?
5 extensive Neotropical pollen studies—
Show AHBs use 20-55 local plant families,
38-250 species
Mostly rosids (not mostly asterids), many
monocots, roughly 25% local flora
What do we need to consider before purposefully introducing exotic
Apis, which are invasive? Their flower visitation habits are one longneglected
aspect of their biology. In natural habitats, at least in the
American tropics, they visit a full range of flowering plants, including
many grasses, sedges, and trees, but not very many of the pretty
‘daisies’ upon which they are frequently depicted.
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