Meeting Abstract
P3.83 Tuesday, Jan. 6 Nucleotide Diversity in Native and Invasive Island Populations of the Leafcutting Bee (Megachile apicalis) HRANITZ, J.M.*; SAVITSKI, A.N.; BARTHELL, J.F.; CLEMENT, M.L.; SONG, D.S.; PETANIDOU, T.; Bloomsburg Univ. of Pennsylvania; Bloomsburg Univ. of Pennsylvania; Univ. of Central Oklahoma, Edmond; Univ. of Central Oklahoma, Edmond; Univ. of California, Berkeley; Univ. of Aegean, Mytilene, Lesvos (Greece) jhranitz@bloomu.edu
Megachile apicalis is a solitary bee that rapidly invaded cavity-nesting bee communities in the western U.S. during the 1980s. In the Central Valley of California, M. apicalis appears more eurythermal than native megachilid bees and, in addition to nesting in riparian zone and marsh habitats, successfully reproduces in hot, dry grassland habitats that provide summer conditions surpassing native bee larva stress tolerance. Such a broad range of habitat use suggests that M. apicalis populations contain either a generalist genotype or genetic variants suited for diverse habitats. To compare the genetic diversity of invasive versus native M. apicalis, we examined the genetic diversity of samples collected from an invasive population on Santa Cruz Island (USA) and the Aegean Island of Lesvos (Greece). Bees collected at two or three sites on each island were genotyped for 658 bp of the cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) mitochondrial DNA locus. Leafcutting bees on Santa Cruz Island carried identical COI haplotypes whereas those on the Island of Lesvos yielded three COI haplotypes. While samples from mainland populations may reveal different results, similar samples of two island populations support the hypothesis that invasive populations of M. apicalis have lower genetic diversity than native populations of this species.
