[Pollinator] FW: Washington Post: Honey, I'm Gone

[Jennifer Tsang]

-----Original Message-----
From: bugsrus at yorku.ca [mailto:bugsrus at yorku.ca] 
Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2007 10:25 AM
To: Jennifer Tsang
Subject: Re: [Pollinator] Washington Post: Honey, I'm Gone

Greetings, could you please pass this message on to the listserve?

Thanks

Laurence

Heredity. 2007 May 30; [Epub ahead of print]	Related Articles, Links
    Click here to read
    The population genetics of a solitary oligolectic sweat bee,
Lasioglossum
(Sphecodogastra) oenotherae (Hymenoptera: Halictidae).

    Zayed A, Packer L.

    1Department of Biology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

    Strong evidence exists for global declines in pollinator populations.
Data
on the population genetics of solitary bees, especially diet specialists,
are
generally lacking. We studied the population genetics of the oligolectic bee
Lasioglossum oenotherae, a specialist on the pollen of evening primrose
(Onagraceae), by genotyping 455 females from 15 populations across the bee's
North American range at six hyper-variable microsatellite loci. We found
significant levels of genetic differentiation between populations, even at
small geographic scales, as well as significant patterns of isolation by
distance. However, using multilocus genotype assignment tests, we detected
11
first-generation migrants indicating that L. oenotherae's sub-populations
are
experiencing ongoing gene flow. Southern populations of L. oenotherae were
significantly more likely to deviate from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and
from
genotypic equilibrium, suggesting regional differences in gene flow and/or
drift and inbreeding. Short-term N(e) estimated using temporal changes in
allele frequencies in several populations ranged from approximately 223 to
960.
We discuss our findings in terms of the conservation genetics of specialist
pollinators, a group of considerable ecological importance.Heredity advance
online publication, 30 May 2007;doi:10.1038/sj.hdy.6801013.