The southeastern blueberry bee (
Habropoda laboriosa) is so named because it is native to the southeastern US and forages primarily on blueberry (
Vaccinium spp.) plants. It resembles a small bumble bee (
Bombus spp.) and is abundant in blueberry orchards throughout its range. Blueberry plants are most effectively pollinated by sonication and the southeastern blueberry bee is very efficient at this. The bee grabs onto a flower and moves its flight muscles rapidly to release the pollen. The bee's face is then covered in pollen, which is inadvertently deposited at the next flower on which the bee forages. These bees are fast foragers and are more efficient at pollinating blueberry plants on a bee per bee basis than honey bees (
Apis mellifera) and bumble bees, foraging from early morning to sunset. Although southeastern blueberry bees are only active for a few weeks in the spring, this period of activity occurs during the peak of blueberry bloom. An individual female is capable of visiting 50,000 rabbiteye blueberry (
Vaccinium ashei) flowers in her lifetime, producing over 6,000 ripe blueberries (Cane, J. H., 1997).
These bees are also important pollinators of native wildflowers. They are known to collect pollen from Carolina and swamp jessamine (
Gelsemium semprevirens;
Gelsemium rankinii), redbud (
Cercis canadensis), thistle (
Cirsium spp.), and lupine (
Lupinus spp.). In fact, the southeastern blueberry bee is one of the most abundant and effective pollinators of
Gelsemium in Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida (Pascarella, J. B., 2007).
References: Foraging patterns of the southeastern blueberry bee Habropoda laboriosa (Apidae, Hymenoptera): Implications for understanding oligolecty, John B. Pascarella, Journal of Apicultural Research, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 19-27, March 2007; Lifetime Monetary Value of Individual Pollinators: The Bee
Habropoda laboriosa at Rabbiteye Blueberry (
Vaccinium ashei READE), J. H. Cane, Acta Horticulturae, vol 446, 1997, pp. 67-70;
Reproductive Growth and Development of Blueberry, J. G. Williamson and P. M. Lyrene, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Science; Mechanisms of prezygotic reproductive isolation between two sympatric species,
Gelsemium rankinii and
G. sempervirens (Gelsemiaceae), in the southeastern United States, John B. Pascarella, American Journal of Botany, 2007, vol. 94, pp.468-476
