Pollinators and Their Importance

Protecting Pollinators: How to Save the Creatures that Feed Our World. Hellmer, J. 2019. Island Press, Washington, DC, U.S.A. 232 pp. US$28.00 (paperback). ISBN 978-1-61091936-4. The Lives of Bees: the Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild. Seeley, T. D. 2019. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, U.S.A. 376 pp. US$20.37 (hardcover). ISBN 978-0-691-16676-6. Pollination is one of the most important of ecosystem services. Moths and butterflies, flies, bugs, and even some birds take part in pollination. However, bees (both wild bees and the honey bee) are the most effective pollinators. The honey bee (Apis mellifera) is the most familiar pollinator because its managed colonies make honey and other important products for humans. Most flowering plants need animal pollinators, and these have a key role in food production as well as in the continued existence of natural ecosystems (Ollerton et al. 2011). However, both honeybee and wild pollinators are at risk due to intensification of human activities (Kremen et al. 2002). So pollinators are very important subjects of conservation and agriculture and have a profound impact on human well-being. Protecting Pollinators by Jody Helmer is a well done resume of the latest challenges in pollinator protection. Important topics like the problematic use of insecticides and other toxins, the replacement of native plants with nonnative species, and the effects of climate change on pollinators and plants are all discussed. It is correctly stressed that wild pollinators are at least or even more important than the honey bee and that pollinator protection can be furthered more by setting up wild-bee nesting boxes or planting pollinator-friendly gardens than by starting managed honeybee colonies in backyards or on balconies. Besides bees, Helmer discusses problems with the monarch butterfly (Danais plexippus), a flagship species for pollinator protection, and provides much interesting information on other pollinator species, for example, bats. Despite a few biological imprecisions, this book has great strengths. It not only lists the difficulties, but also gives numerous practical solutions for them. The Twenty-Nine Ways You Can Help Protect Pollinators box at the end of the book contains feasible pollinator protection activities anyone who wants to take local action can do to help pollinators globally. Unlike Helmer's book, The Lives of Bees by Thomas D. Seeley is only about one pollinator, the honey bee. Honey bees are not only the best known pollinator, but also probably the most well-known of insects. It is the only domesticated insect and the least domesticated among domesticates. There are many books and articles on the life history, biology, anatomy, and physiology of honey bees, but these are mostly based on research on managed colonies. There exist wild populations or colonies of honeybees on which there is little information. Seeley studied the life of wild honey bees for decades. Besides discussing his own research results, he reviews the sparse literature on wild A. mellifera. After characterizing free-living colonies and discussing the domestication rate of honey bees, the author details the life history of honeybees living in the wild, underlining the differences with respect to human-managed colonies. He describes the most important life-history components: construction of the nest in a tree hole; the annual cycle of energy intake and colony growth, with its finely tuned seasonal changes; colony reproduction, which is the basis of natural selection by queen and drone production and swarming; and exploration and selection of food resources including the exploitation of very distant nectar sources and the role of the waggle dance. A separate chapter describes the significance of temperature control of the colony and the different colony-defense tactics. In the last chapter, the author outlines a new, bee-friendly way of beekeeping, which he calls “Darwinian beekeeping.” In 21 points, he summarizes the most important differences in the environments in which wild and managed colonies live. On the basis of these differences, Seeley suggest ways hobby beekeepers can help their bees fit in better with the natural environment so as to lessen stress and improve overall health. Unfortunately, commercial beekeepers managing hundreds of colonies have fewer options. However, bee-friendly beekeeping is possible even if one must consider short-term human goals and the long-term well-being of bees.

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