Nesting ecology of Osmia cornifrons in an urban environment

Osmia cornifrons Radoszkowski (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) is an early season fruit crop pollinator. The advent of colony collapse disorder has increased interest in using solitary bees such as O. cornifrons for alternate or supplemental pollination. The objective of this study was to investigate O. cornifrons nesting ecology by videotaping its nesting behavior from the start of nesting activity until nesting activity ceased. From the video footage we recorded the number of trips and time investment for preliminary plugging, provisioning cells with pollen, constructing mud walls between cells, and building vestibular cells. In addition, duration of gathering and foraging trips was recorded and nesting behavior of O. cornifrons was described for each activity throughout the study. O. cornifrons took an average of 10.5 trips to create the preliminary plug, and in-nest activity took an average of 2.78 min per trip. Provisioning the nest with pollen took an average of 28 trips, and in-nest activity took an average of 1.40 min per trip. Mud wall partitioning required nine trips and in-nest activity required an average of 1.80 min to complete per trip. In this talk, detailed nesting behavior of O. cornifrons is described and its implications for O. cornifrons population management are discussed.