In a message dated 1/17/00 2:02:42 PM, [log in to unmask] writes:

<<Were the
natural pollinators displaced from a niche?>>

    Honey bees are getting a bad rap today in the conservation movement and
among gardeners for being an invasive species that outcompetes native
pollinators. I'm not a scientist, but it seems some of the highly speculative
comments I've read about the deprivations of honey bees are coming from some
in the scientific community who covet the money that is being spent on honey
bee research. It's necessary that beekeepers and others interested in their
work develop an effective response to these accusations, lest we lose our
research funding and our markets. A clear, persuasive, accurate message is
needed to unsully our work. What follows is my muddled beginnings of a
response to these criticisms of honey bees. I rely on the readers of this
list to help me sharpen the points.

    The amazing thing about flowers and their pollinators is how some have
evolved over time into specific relationships with certain pollinators. The
flowers may have evolved so that only the preferred pollinator can pollinate
them. Think of the long-stemmed flowers that seem perfectly shaped for a
hummingbird's probing beak. Honey bees usually cannot compete with
specialists because pollen or nectar is not accessible or not desireable to
them. It's also true that honey bees do compete with rare or endangered
pollinators in some places, especially it seems in harsher environments like
the desert (Buchmann and Nabhan, 1996).
    Pollination specialization can be deadly, because it means those life
forms cannot adapt quickly to change. Loss of habitat may be the biggest
challenge many of these species are facing. When specialized flowers or their
pollinators become endangered or threatened, it is usually because of habitat
loss, not competition from honey bees.
    Other flowers are generalists; they may be pollinated by many different
insects who are also generalists that visit a variety of plants. Generalists
have wider ranges, are more adaptable, and have larger populations.
    I don't know what the natural pollinator of cotton is, but it's probably
another highly adaptable generalist that may have been locally displaced in
some regions where honey bees have become well established, but I doubt it
has been completely displaced across its range. Native pollinators may even
be doing better than before the honey bees arrived, due to the cultural
practices of Old World farming and modern cultivation.
    Humans have  created new opportunities for the generalist pollinators,
native and introduced alike. There is probably far more cotton growing today
in North America due to farming than there was at the time the honey bee was
introduced. I suspect that if it were possible to compare the population size
of native pollinators today with what it was when honey bees were first
introduced, we might find populations are actually larger.