Jim has spent many of the past 24 years studying the nesting ecology and pollination biology of native bees, such as Peponapis bees for squash, Nomia bees for alfalfa, and Osmia bees for cranberries and raspberries. For the past 12 years, he has worked for the US Department of Agriculture at the Bee Biology and Systematics Lab at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, USA. Prior to that, he was on the faculty of Auburn University in Alabama, a Miller post-doc at UC Berkeley, a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas and a B.S. from the College of Forestry at Syracuse. His agricultural pollination work is primarily focused on bees that pollinate cranberries and blueberries (Vaccinium, Ericaceae), alfalfa (Medicago, Fabaceae) and more recently, raspberries (Rubus, Rosaceae), squashes (Cucurbita) and almonds (Prunus). In addition, he quantifies foraging and nest provisioning dynamics, pollen nutrition and pollen/nectar toxins, effects of habitat fragmentation on native bee communities, and patterns and causes of variation in bee abundance at various time scales. Recent work ecological work is focused on the breeding biologies, pollination needs of prevalent Great Basin wildflowers, their pollinator guilds, and their use for native seed growers as part of the Great Basin Native Seed Increase Project under the Great Basin Restoration Initiative with BLM and USFS.
Ecology and conservation
Predicted fates of ground-nesting bees in soil heated by wildfire: Thermal tolerances of life stages and a survey of nesting depths (with J. Neff), Biological Conservation (2011)
Periodic wildfire defines plant community composition and dynamics in many of the world’s semi-arid biomes,...
Importance of crop pollination in changing landscapes (with A. M. Klein, B. Vaissiere, S. Cunningham, C. Kremen, I. Steffan-Dewenter, and T. Tscharntke), The Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B (2007)
Complex responses within a desert bee guild (Hymenoptera: Apiformes) to urban habitat fragmentation (with R. L. Minckley, L. J. Kervin, T. H. Roulston, and N. M. Williams), Ecological Applications (2006)
Bee management
The alfalfa leaf-cutting bee, Megachile rotundata: The world’s most intensively managed solitary bee (with T. L. Pitts-Singer), Annual Review of Entomology (2011)
Biology and management potential for three orchard bee species (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae): Osmia ribifloris Cockerell, O. lignaria (Say) and O. chalybea Smith, with emphasis on the former (with B. J. Sampson, G. T. Kirker, S. J. Stringer, and J. M. Spiers), Acta Horticulturae (2009)
A native ground-nesting bee (Nomia melanderi) sustainably managed to pollinate alfalfa across an intensively agricultural landscape, Apidologie (2008)
An effective, manageable bee for pollinating Rubus cane fruits, Osmia aglaia, Acta Horticulturae (2008)
Climatically tuned Blue Orchard Bee development and how to manage it for almond pollination, California Almond Board (2008)
Pathogens and Parasites
Susceptibility of Ips calligraphus (Germar) and Dendroctonus frontalis Zimmermann (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) to coleopteran-active Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacterial metabolite, and Avermectin B1 (with H. Cox and W. Moar), The Canadian Entomologist (1995)
Host records and nest entry by Dolichostelis, a kleptoparasitic anthidiine bee (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) (with F. D. Parker, G. W. Frankie, and S. B. Vinson), The Pan-Pacific Entomologist (1987)
Olfactory evaluation of Andrena host nest suitability by kleptoparasitic Nomada bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea), Animal Behavior (1983)
A comparative study of the exocrine products of clepto-parasitic bees (Holcopasites) and their hosts (Calliopsis) (Hymenoptera: Anthophoridae, Andrenidae) (with A. Hefetz, G. C. Eickwort, M. S. Blum, and G. E. Bohart), Journal of Chemical Ecology (1982)
Natural History
Contrasting roles for host plant recognition in Group IX Ips and solitary bees, Entomological Society of America, national meeting (2010)
Substrates and materials used for nesting by North American Osmia bees (with Terry L. Griswold and Frank D. Parker), Annals of the Entomological Society of America (2007)
Nesting substrates and construction materials are compared for 65 of North America's 139 described native...
Nesting resins obtained from pollen host by an oligolectic bee, Trachusa larreae (Cockerell) (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae), Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society (1996)
Notes on the nesting biology of Svastra atripes (Hymenoptera: Apoidea), Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society (1995)
Nesting biology and mating behavior of the southeastern blueberry bee, Habropoda laboriosa (Hymenoptera: Apoidea), Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society (1994)
Bee Management
The alfalfa leaf-cutting bee, Megachile rotundata: The world’s most intensively managed solitary bee (with T. L. Pitts-Singer), Annual Review of Entomology (2011)
Biology and management potential for three orchard bee species (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae): Osmia ribifloris Cockerell, O. lignaria (Say) and O. chalybea Smith, with emphasis on the former (with B. J. Sampson, G. T. Kirker, S. J. Stringer, and J. M. Spiers), Acta Horticulturae (2009)
A native ground-nesting bee (Nomia melanderi) sustainably managed to pollinate alfalfa across an intensively agricultural landscape, Apidologie (2008)
An effective, manageable bee for pollinating Rubus cane fruits, Osmia aglaia, Acta Horticulturae (2008)
Climatically tuned Blue Orchard Bee development and how to manage it for almond pollination, California Almond Board (2008)
Taxonomy, systematics, and biogeography
Resurrecting the bee Osmia aglaia Sandhouse from synonymy (Hymenoptera: Apiformes: Megachilidae) (with R. W. Rust and G. W. Bohart), Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society (2009)
A new monolectic coastal bee, Hesperapis oraria Snelling and Stage (Hymenoptera: Melittidae), with a review of desert and Neotropical disjunctives in the Southeastern U.S. (with D. Schiffhauer, L. J. Kervin, and G. C. Eickwort), Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society (1996)
Attraction of a pinyon pine bark beetle, Ips hoppingi, to conspecific and I. confusus pheromones (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) (with D. L. Wood), Journal of Chemical Ecology (1990)
Phylogenetic relationships of Ips bark beetles (Coleoptera: Scolytidae): Electrophoretic and morphometric analyses of the grandicollis group (with M. W. Stock, D. L. Wood, and S. J. Gast), Biochemical Systematics and Ecology (1990)
Dufour's gland glycerides from Anthophora, Emphoropsis (Anthophoridae) and Megachile (Megachilidae) bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) (with R. Carlson), Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology (1984)
Pollination and foraging
Adult pollen and nectar needs of a solitary bee (Nomia melanderi)(Apiformes: Halictidae), VI Latin American Bee Research Meeting (2012)
Breeding biologies, pollinators and seed beetles of two prairie-clovers, Dalea ornata and D. searlsiae (Fabaceae: Amorpheae), from the Intermountain West USA (with M. Weber and S. Miller), Western North American Naturalist (2012)
Abstract: Douglas’ dustymaiden, Chaenactis douglasii (Hook.) Hook. & Arn., is a widespread, inconspicuous, short-lived perennial...
Breeding Biology and Pollinators of Dusty Maiden, Chaenactis douglasii, Great Basin Native Seed Increase Workshop (2012)
Native bees for wildflower seed farming and large-scale wildland restoration in the western USA, International Conference on Pollinator Biology (2012)
Natural history
Contrasting roles for host plant recognition in Group IX Ips and solitary bees, Entomological Society of America, national meeting (2010)
Substrates and materials used for nesting by North American Osmia bees (with Terry L. Griswold and Frank D. Parker), Annals of the Entomological Society of America (2007)
Nesting substrates and construction materials are compared for 65 of North America's 139 described native...
Nesting resins obtained from pollen host by an oligolectic bee, Trachusa larreae (Cockerell) (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae), Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society (1996)
Notes on the nesting biology of Svastra atripes (Hymenoptera: Apoidea), Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society (1995)
Nesting biology and mating behavior of the southeastern blueberry bee, Habropoda laboriosa (Hymenoptera: Apoidea), Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society (1994)
Ecology & conservation
Bee communities and wildfire: Thermal tolerances, soil heat conduction and nesting depths, Great Basin Native Seed Increase Workshop (2011)
Post-fire fates and on-farm use of wild bees for native forb seed production, 11th Biennial Conference on Research on the Colorado Plateau (2011)
Do Specialist Bees Better Discriminate Among Their Hybridizing Balsamorhiza Floral Hosts?, Botanical Society of America meeting (2009)
Pollinating Great Basin forbs for seed to rehabilitate western rangelands, University of California at Davis, Department of Entomology (2008)
No subject area
Alkali bees: Great pollinators with management limitations, Alfalfa Pollinator Workshop and Lab Tour (2011)
Nectar and pollen sugars constituting larval provisions of the alfalfa leaf-cutting bee (Megachile rotundata) (Hymenoptera: Apiformes: Megachilidae) (with D. Gardner and P. Harrison), Apidologie (2011)