Many bee species can be found in urban areas, living in parks or rural neighborhoods. In Bogotá, Colombia, Thygater aethiops is a common urban bee known for forming large nest aggregations. However, little is understood about how this species has adapted to urban environments. Given that urban flora is often dominated by ornamental and introduced plants, I sought to identify the pollen sources used by T. aethiops and investigate their seasonal reproductive cycles.

The study revealed that T. aethiops utilizes both native and introduced plants as pollen sources, adapting to the most abundant floral resources available at any given time. Additionally, I observed three reproductive peaks during the study period, which typically occurred following the rainy season. Explore the full results here.