Date of Award:

8-2026

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Biology

Committee Chair(s)

Robert N. Schaeffer (Committee Chair) Kelsey K. Graham (Committee Co-Chair)

Committee

Robert N. Schaeffer

Committee

Kelsey K. Graham

Committee

Brent L. Black

Abstract

Bee management can broadly refer to human manipulation of one or multiple parts of a bee’s lifecycle. Managing honey bees, commonly referred to as beekeeping, is responsible for providing most pollination for global food crops. However, using more than one bee species for crop pollination can have many benefits. Benefits include better crop pollination and insurance in case one bee species underperforms or its population collapses. Some bees within the genus Osmia are already widely managed for crop pollination because their developmental lifecycle allows bee managers to readily deploy pollinating bees in sync with varying crop blooms, and for certain crops, they are more effective pollinators than honey bees. Certain Osmia, such as O.ribifloris and O. bruneri, are promising pollinators for blueberries and raspberries, respectively. But due to a lack of knowledge on ideal management strategies, they have not been extensively adopted for management. As such, my work addresses foundational questions about the needs and preferences of managed O. bruneri and O. ribifloris, providing new information about these species and expanding our tools for managing them.

In my first research chapter, Chapter 2, I investigate the pollen and nesting preferences of the blueberry mason bee, O. ribifloris. Chapter 3 then examines various strategies for managing O. bruneri in off-season months to expedite emergence in synchrony with berry crop blooms. Together, my thesis chapters present novel findings on the management preferences of O. ribifloris and O. bruneri through both empirical observations and experimental methods. Notably, I found that both bees display remarkable flexibility, O. bruneri in its ability to contend with being emerged over six weeks before its normal emergence, and O. ribifloris in its willingness to collect pollen from multiple plant species when the bloom of its preferred blueberry crop is limited. My thesis also provides new resources and insights on the pollination of berries in general through its appendices, together comprising a comprehensive set of advancements in our knowledge of Osmia bee management.

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