RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Bees Without Flowers: Before Peak Bloom, Diverse Native Bees Visit Insect-produced Honeydew Sugars JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 082271 DO 10.1101/082271 A1 Joan M. Meiners A1 Terry L. Griswold A1 David J. Harris A1 S.K. Morgan Ernest YR 2016 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/10/21/082271.abstract AB Bee foragers respond to complex visual, olfactory, and extrasensory cues to optimize searches for floral rewards. Their abilities to detect and distinguish floral colors, shapes, volatiles, and ultraviolet signals, and even gauge nectar availability from changes in floral humidity or electric fields are well studied. Bee foraging behaviors in the absence of floral cues, however, are rarely considered. We observed forty-four species of wild bees visiting inconspicuous, non-flowering shrubs during early spring in a protected, Mediterranean habitat. We determined experimentally that these bees were accessing sugary honeydew secretions from scale insects without the aid of standard cues. While honeydew use is known among some social Hymenoptera, its use across a diverse community of mostly solitary bees is a novel observation. The widespread ability of native bees to locate and use unadvertised, non-floral sugars suggests unappreciated sensory mechanisms and/or the existence of a social foraging network among solitary bees that may influence how native bee communities cope with increasing environmental change.