Impact of introduced honeybees, Apis mellifera, upon native bee communities in the Bonin (Ogasawara) Islands

摘要

The Bonin (Ogasawara) Islands are oceanic islands located in the northwest Pacific, and have ten native (nine endemic) bee species, all of which are nonsocial. The European honey bee (Apis mellifera), which was introduced to the islands for apiculture in the 1880s, became naturalized in a few islands shortly after introduction. To detect the impact of the honey bees upon native bee diversity, pollen harvest by honey bees was analysed and the relative abundance of honey bees and native bees on flowers on several islands surveyed. Both hived and feral honey bee colonies were active throughout the year, harvesting pollen of both native and alien flowers and from both entomophilous and anemophilous flowers. Honey bees strongly depended on the alien plants, especially during winter to spring when native melittophilous flowers were rare. From June to November, honey bees exhaustively utilized native flowers which had originally been utilized and pollinated by native bees. On Chichi and Haha Islands, where human disturbance of forests has been severe, both native and alien flowers were dominated by honey bees, and native bees were rare or extinct even in well-conserved forests. In contrast, on Ani Island and Haha's satellite islands where primary forests were well conserved and honey bees were still uncommon or absent, native bees remained dominant. These results suggest that competition for nectar and pollen of the native flowers between honey bees and native bees favours honeybees on the disturbed islands, which are thoroughly invaded by alien nectariferous, sometimes aggressive, weedy plants.