Solitary Bees as Alternative Pollinators of Pennsylvania Fruit Crops

Introduction Pollination is a pivotal, keystone process in almost all terrestrial ecosystem food webs: it supports global and sustainable productivity in agriculture and forestry, and maintains the biodiversity of plant and animal life. Bees are the most important pollinators, but bee declines in abundance and species richness have been documented on 4 continents. Almost 100 crop species in the US rely to some extent on honey bee pollination and the value of honey bees to U.S. agriculture is estimated to be $15 billion annually. Collectively these 100 crops make up about 1/3 of the US diet and consist mainly of high-value specialty crops (i.e. fruit, vegetable and nut crops) that provide the bulk of vitamins and other nutrients that contribute to healthy diets.