Group-living insects are well known in the managed ecosystems in agriculture and forestry. Most, such as communally living caterpillars of moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera), caterpillar-like larvae of some sawflies (Hymenoptera: Tenthrenidae), some thrips (Thysanoptera), some beetles (Coleoptera), aphids and their kin (Hemiptera), some earwigs (Dermaptera), ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), and social wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), are regarded as pests or at best nuisances. Ants and wasps are sometimes beneficial as through their predatory habits, they may control pests. By far the best known of the beneficial social insects in managed environments are bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae), especially those managed for pollination. The scope of this entry is limited to eusocial insects, those that live in colonies and exhibit caste differentiation, notably bees and ants.
Although beekeeping and honey gathering with bees of the genus Apisand some stingless bees (Meliponini) have their roots in...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Batra, S. W. T. (1995). Bees and pollination in our changing environment. Apidologie, 26, 361–370.
Dafni, A., Kevan, P. G., Gross, C. L., & Goka, K. (2010). Bombus terrestris, pollinator, invasive and pest: An assessment of problems associated with its widespread introductions for commercial purposes. Applied Entomology and Zoology, 445, 101–113.
Donovan, B. J. (2010). Potential manageable exploitation of social wasps, Vespula spp. (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), as generalist predators of insect pests. International Journal of Pest Management, 49, 281–285. https://doi.org/10.1080/0967087031000123698.
FAO. (2013). http://www.fao.org/agriculture/crops/thematic-sitemap/theme/biodiversity/ecological-intensification/en/. Accessed 15 Feb 2019, and http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/agphome/documents/scpi/Deliverable_7_2_LiberationBibliography.pdf. Accessed 15 Feb 2019.
Graham, J. M. (Ed.). (2015). The hive and the honey bee. Hamilton: Dadant & Sons.
Heinrich, B. (2004). Bumblebee economics (revised ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 288 pp.
Hrncir, M., & Barth, F. G. (2014). Vibratory communication in stingless bees (Meliponini): The challenge of interpreting the signals. In R. Cocroft, M. Gogala, P. Hill, & A. Wessel (Eds.), Studying vibrational communication. Animal signals and communication (Vol. 3). Berlin: Springer.
Huang, H. T., & Yang, P. (1987). The ancient cultured Citrus ant. Bioscience, 37, 665–671. https://doi.org/10.2307/1310713.
IPBES. (2016). The assessment report of the intergovernmental science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services on pollinators, pollination and food production. Bonn: Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, 556pp. https://www.ipbes.net/sites/default/files/downloads/pdf/individual_chapters_pollination_20170305.pdf.
Kevan, P. G. (Ed.). (1995). The Asiatic hive bee: Apiculture, biology and role in sustainable development in tropical and subtropical Asia. Cambridge: Enviroquest.
Kevan, P. G. (1999). Pollinators as bioindicators of the state of the environment: Species, activity and diversity. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 74, 373–393.
Kevan, P. G. (2001). Pollination: Plinth, pedestal, and pillar for terrestrial productivity. The why, how, and where of pollination protection, conservation, and promotion. In C. S. Stubbs & F. A. Drummond (Eds.), Bees and crop pollination – Crisis, crossroads, conservation (pp. 7–68). Lanham: Thomas Say Publications in Entomology, Entomological Society of America.
Mader, E., Spivak, M., & Evans, E. (Eds.). (2010). Managing alternative pollinators: A handbook for beekeepers, growers, and conservationists, SNARE Handbook #11 (86). Ithaca: Natural Resource, Agriculture and Engineering Service.
Meléndez Ramírez, V., Ayala, R., & Delfín González, H. (2018). Crop pollination by stingless bees. In P. Vit, S. Pedro, & D. Roubik (Eds.), Pot-pollen in stingless bee melittology. New York: Springer.
Merwan, H. B., & Kevan, P. G. (2013). Social learning in bumblebees (Bombus impatiens): Worker bumblebees learn to manipulate and forage at artificial flowers by observation and communication within the colony. Psyche, 2013, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/768108.
Michener, C. D. (2013). The meliponini. In P. Vit, S. Pedro, & D. Roubik (Eds.), Pot-honey. New York: Springer.
Nunes-Silva, P. (2018). Transmissão de parasitas e patógenos e espécies exóticas. In A. Vollet Neto & C. Menezes (Eds.), Desafios e recomendações para o manejo e o transporte de polinizadores (1st ed., pp. 49–62). São Paulo: Associação Brasileira de Estudos das Abelhas.
Oomen, P. A., & Pistorius, J. (2018). Hazards of pesticides to bees. In 13th international symposium of the ICP-PR Bee Protection Group; 18.-20. Oct 2017, València – Proceedings. Julius-Kühn-Archiv 462. Quedlinburg. https://doi.org/10.5073/jka.2018.462.000.
Roulston, T. H., & Cane, J. H. (2000). Pollen nutritional content and digestibility for animals. Plant Systematics and Evolution, 222, 187–209.
Roubik, D. W. (Ed.). (2018). The pollination of cultivated plants: A compendium for practitioners (2nd ed. in two volumes). Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. http://www.fao.org/3/i9201en/I9201EN.pdf, http://www.fao.org/3/I9184EN/i9184en.pdf
Schmid-Hempel, R., Eckhardt, M., Goulson, D., Heinzmann, D., Lange, C., Plischuk, S., Escudero, L. R., Salathé, R., Scriven, J. J., & Schmid-Hempel, P. (2014). The invasion of southern South America by imported bumblebees and associated parasites. Journal of Animal Ecology, 83, 823–837.
Smagghe, G., Boecking, O., Maccagnani, B., Mänd, M., & Kevan, P. (Eds.). (2020). Entomovectoring for precision biocontrol and enhanced pollination of crops: Exploiting synergy of ecosystem services. Berlin: Springer. (in press).
Southon, R. J., Fernandes, O. A., Nascimento, F. S., & Sumner, S. (2019). Social wasps are effective biocontrol agents of key lepidopteran crop pests. Proceeding of the Royal Society (B). Published: 06 November 2019. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.1676.
Velthuis, H. W., & van Doorn, A. (2006). A century of advances in bumblebee domestication and the economic and environmental aspects of its commercialization for pollination. Apidologie, 37, 421–445. https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ARINRA-APID/hal-00892201v1.
Willmer, P. (2011). Pollination and floral ecology. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 832 pp.
Zurbuchen, A., Landert, L., Klaiber, J., Müller, A., Hein, S., & Dorn, S. (2010). Maximum foraging ranges in solitary bees: Only few individuals have the capability to cover long foraging distances. Biological Conservation, 143, 669–676.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Kevan, P., Nunes-Silva, P. (2021). Pollination and Agriculture. In: Starr, C.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Social Insects. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28102-1_176
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28102-1_176
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-28101-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-28102-1
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences