[Pollinator] Radio tracking euglossine bees - pollinators of rare tropical orchids

[Jennifer Tsang]

Thanks to Patricia S. De Angelis for forwarding the below:

 

Tiny radio transmitters track flight of tropical orchid bees 
Scientific American 
May 27, 2010 
By Katherine Harmon 

Rare
<http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=virus-ravages-orchids>
tropical orchids can be few and far between in the wild, often separated by
spotty landscape and human-made obstacles. But powerful tropical orchid
<http://www.scientificamerican.com/report.cfm?id=buzz-on-bees> bees do the
leg-or wing-work, flying great distances to pollinate isolated flowers and
keep the flora gene pool fresh. 

Just how far and where exactly these bees fly, however, has remained
relatively obscure to researchers. Some studies had tracked bees by marking
them and using bait
<http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=sneaky-orchid-driv
es-wasps-wild-09-08-06> flowers to lure them in for counting or by scouting
out specific flowers that bees appeared to return to. But these results have
created only a rough sketch of the range and routes of these bees. 

Full story:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=tiny-radio-transmitters-t
rack-fligh-2010-05-27

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