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Compact housing in built‐up areas: spatial patterning of nests in aggregations of a ground‐nesting bee
Author(s) -
Potts Simon G.,
Willmer Pat.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
ecological entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.865
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1365-2311
pISSN - 0307-6946
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2311.1998.00160.x
Subject(s) - nest (protein structural motif) , nesting (process) , biology , substrate (aquarium) , ecology , spatial ecology , fidelity , scale (ratio) , competition (biology) , halictidae , hymenoptera , cartography , geography , apoidea , computer science , telecommunications , biochemistry , materials science , metallurgy
.1. The spatial patterning of nests in ten aggregations of a ground‐nesting bee Halictus rubicundus (Christ) was examined using nearest‐neighbour distance analysis. 2. Large scale aggregation was demonstrated and attributed to a preference for nesting in limited areas of the most suitable substrate in conjunction with natal site fidelity of nest‐founding females. 3. Within patches of high nest density, there was a fine‐scale regularity resulting from competition for sufficient substrate to maintain the structural integrity of the nest. 4. The appropriateness of four statistical tests is discussed with respect to analysing the spatial arrangement of nests in populations with both aggregated and regular components.