D3223: Land cover type and scale influences on urban bee distribution

In a residential landscape study, we collected 4,938 bees, representing 111species from 28 genera in five families and 20% of the species reported for the state of Georgia. Bees that were most abundant included H. ligatus, L. bruneri, L. callidum, L. illinoense and L. tegulare. Thirteen species found on at least half the locations included A. mellifera, B. impatiens, C. strenua, H. ligatus, L. bruneri, L. callidum, L. hitchensi, L. illinoense, L. imitatum, L. tegulare , L. trigeminum, M. communis and P. bombiformis. Five species were exotic; A. mellifera, M. rotundata, M. sculpturalis, O. taurus and P. pruinose.

The majority of bees collected were generalist floral visitors. However, 13 species are known oligoleges. Among the species collected, 73.9% were soil nesters, 22.5% were cavity or pith nesters and 3.6% were wood or soft wood dwellers. Fifteen parasitic bee species were represented in the samples. There were 64 species are known to be solitary. Forest effect switched from mostly negative to mostly positive as the landscape scale gets larger. This seems to suggest that more open areas may support higher bee diversity locally but that forest cover still promotes regional bee diversity. C. strenua and O. georgica showing strong positive associations with forests are cavity nesters, suggesting forests may provide important nesting resources. Development had a primarily positive effect, especially at small scales, but roads had mostly a negative effect, suggesting the potential benefits of residential areas in general despite the mostly negative effect of roads.