[Pollinator] An appeal to bee taxonomists

[Peter Bernhardt]

A promising Masters student at the Kunming Institute of Botany, named
hai-Dong Li, is studying the pollination biology and natural rates of
hybridization between wild primrose (Primula) species in Yunnan province.
He collected potential pollinators from 10 sites.  As usual, he's having
problems finding Chinese taxonomists to identify his insects as Chinese
laws forbid him to send specimens out of the country (long story).

I'm going to China in a few weeks and will have the opportunity to view his
sites and last year's collection.  Are there any taxa of Eurasian bees
known to be oligolectic on Primula?  For those unfamiliar, most lowland
Primula species are heterostylous (see Darwin's book on the different forms
of flowers on the same species) and the population is divided into pin and
thrum forms.  Pin flowers make pollen of a different size that "fit" onto
pistil tips of thrum flowers and vice-versa.  If there are Primula
oligoleges we can do pollen washes to see if they carry both pin and thrum
pollen.

Peter
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