Bees (Hymenoptera : Apoidea) of Far Northern Ontario and Akimiski Island, Nunavut

Study Extent

Akimiski Island, Ontario's Far North (50 degrees north latitude and above, traps emptied daily, spring and summer from 2010-2014 for Ontario and 2010-2017 for Akimiski Island

Sampling

Trapping in Ontario’s Far North — Two ecozones of Ontario’s Far North were sampled: The Boreal Shield ecozone and the Hudson Bay Lowlands ecozone. Bees were caught in pan traps (blue, yellow, white), Malaise traps, Nzi traps and by hand netting. Malaise traps catch many flying insect taxa, and do not tend to attract one taxon over another, while Nzi traps target blood feeding Diptera such as Tabanidae (Figure 2.2). Each trap was set up in the same array at every site. One Malaise trap and one Nzi trap were located near the field camp, where the field personnel set up their tents in a location coinciding with areas that flying insects were likely to be found (e.g. a clearing in a wooded area, a streambed). A single Nzi trap was deployed 10 similarly to Malaise traps. These traps were deployed for 12 hours/day for the five days spent at each site. The collecting head, a plastic jar at the top of the trap which the insects crawl into and are killed, contained 80% denatured ethanol (Ringrose 2014). Specimens were removed at the end of each day and stored in 500-ml sample jars in 70% ethanol. Nine pan traps were also deployed near the field camp arrayed in an ‘X’ shape; traps were 2.25 m apart from each other in a 11.2-m diameter plot (Gan et al. 2009) and pans of different colours (white, yellow and blue) were placed randomly within the array, to ensure that pans would not collect bees in an unbiased fashion. Pans were charged with RV antifreeze as a killing agent and emptied on the same schedule as the Malaise trap. Upon emptying each day, specimens from different coloured pans were grouped together by colour. All FNBP insect collections are stored at the David Beresford entomology lab, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. Akimiski Trapping — Sampling on Akimiski Island, Nunavut, was conducted at a single site using the same trapping method as with the FNBP. The research station on the island was a small, fenced-in area where the trapping took place, approximately 50 m x 60 m (Figure 2.3). The primary vegetative cover was spruce and various shrubs on the inland side of the camp, and flat shoreline (Vezsenyi et al. 2019). All traps were deployed for 12 hours at the research station. Occasional collecting with hand nets took place at other sites on the island on an ad hoc basis. It was difficult to deploy pan, Malaise, or Nzi traps away from the fenced-in field station due to the common occurrences of polar bears on the island, which presented an element of danger to the collector, and would destroy traps. Akimiski Island specimens were placed in sample jars with 70% ethanol.

Quality Control

Expert taxonomic review and DNA barcoding were used to ensure that the species identification of each specimen caught was correct.

Method steps

1. The FNBP terrestrial survey in northern Ontario occurred between June and July from 2010-2014 at >400 distinct sites distributed across 91 temporary field camps (Figure 1). Sites were predetermined along intersecting transect lines that extended outward from field camps. Each site was visited once (e.g., in only one year; Figure 1) and surveyed daily for seven days. Insects, including bees, were collected using four methods: pan traps used to catch flower-visiting insects [shallow, 5 oz dishes painted one of three colours of Rustoleum Tremclad spray paint: white (colour code: RAL 9010), yellow (RAL 1026), and light blue (RAL 5012)], Nzi traps (a biting fly trap, Figure 2B; Mihok 2002), Malaise traps (Figure 2C), and by hand netting once per day. Nine pan traps (3 of each colour) were deployed near the field camp in an ‘X’ shape, spaced a minimum 2.25 m apart where there was sufficient bare ground (Gan et al. 2009). Pans were filled with a propylene glycol mixture consisting of 50% water and 50% non-toxic antifreeze (Starbrite RV Anti-freeze). At each field camp, if there was a dry, open-canopied area (e.g., not in a densely wooded landscape or submerged in water), a Malaise trap and Nzi trap were placed nearby. Both traps were outfitted with collecting heads filled with 80% denatured ethanol (Ringrose et al. 2014). All traps were emptied each day, and captured insects were stored in 500 ml sample jars in 80% ethanol. Specimens from Akimiski Island were collected by the author DVB from mid-July to early August of 2008-2017. Sampling took place at the research station (53°04'02"N, 80°58'14"W; Figure 2D) using Malaise, Nzi, and pan traps deployed from dawn to dusk each day (minimum 2.25m apart within a fenced camp area to protect researchers from polar bears (Ursus maritimus Phipps, 1774, Ursidae) (Figure 2E). Pan traps were filled with propylene glycol (as in northern Ontario) but because these were remote sites with limited access, soapy water was used in some deployments. Sweep netting of vegetation for general insect surveying was conducted ad hoc in the surrounding vicinity outside the fence, and farther away when opportunities arose. Captured specimens were stored in 80% ethanol, grouped by trap type and catch date. Identification and Curation Collections were processed at Trent University and identified to genus by the author KMV using Packer et al. (2007) and Ascher and Pickering (2018), then to species by the author KLJH using dichotomous keys [Anthophora Latreille, 1803, Coelioxys Latreille, 1809, Hoplitis Klug, 1807: Mitchell (1962), Ascher and Pickering (2018); Megachile Latreille, 1802: Sheffield et al. (2011); Osmia Panzer, 1806: Rightmyer et al. (2010), and additional consultation with M. Rightmyer, Andrena Fabricius 1775: Laberge and Ribble (1975), Laberge (1980), Laberge (1986); Halictus Latreille 1804: Mitchell (1960), Roberts (1973); Lasioglossum Curtis, 1833: Gibbs (2010), Gibbs (2013); Colletes Latreille, 1802: Romankova (2003), Stephen (1954), Mitchell (1960)], and referencing specimens in the Packer Collection at York University, the Royal Ontario Museum, and the Biodiversity of Urban Green Spaces (‘BUGS’) Lab at the University of Toronto Scarborough. We additionally obtained CO1 DNA barcodes for each specimen following standard protocols (Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding, Ivanova et al. 2006). We compared the resulting sequences to those uploaded to the Barcode of Life Data (BOLD) systems and cross-referenced sequences in GenBank (Benson et al. 2018) using the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST; Zhang et al. 2000). We used ≥ 98% genetic matches to assign species identities (Packer et al. 2009). The goal of obtaining CO1 barcodes was to confirm taxonomy-based determinations in cases where pre-existing barcodes were available, and to contribute novel barcodes for species and geographical populations not yet represented in barcode libraries. The full list of bee species, their abundances, and GenBank accession numbers are available in Supplementary Materials 1. Descriptions of life history traits (pollen specialization, sociality, and nesting preference) for each species are included in Supplementary Materials 2. We summarize the known province and territory distribution for each species based on published collections and peer-reviewed literature in Supplementary Materials 3. Georeferenced species occurrence records were uploaded to Canadensys for databasing on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) (Vizza et al. 2021 DOI forthcoming). All bee specimens are curated in the BUGS Lab at University of Toronto Scarborough.

Ontario's Far North and Akimiski Island, Nunavut.