Wild bees are key pollinators in organic tomato agroecosystems regardless of the presence of a managed stingless bee

Abstract While managing social bees is a well-documented strategy to enhance pollination services in controlled environments like greenhouses, this approach remains comparatively underexplored in open-field conditions. There is also a lack of empirical data on how managed bees affect wild bees and about minimally invasive methods for identifying and selecting healthy colonies for introduction into agroecosystems. We aimed to evaluate the potential of Melipona quadrifasciata for assisted pollination of tomato plants cultivated in open organic fields and its potential impacts on wild bees. We assessed nine M. quadrifasciata hives by monitoring foraging activity and qualitative parameters (brood cells, food storage, and pathogens) with environmental conditions (temperature and humidity). We then evaluated bee communities and pollination services across seven farms, four with introduced hives. We monitored bee activity on tomato flowers and non-crop plants to evaluate potential effects on wild bees. Pollination services were also evaluated along with fruit quality parameters. Monitoring foraging activity of hives alongside environmental data provides a practical, effective, and minimally invasive method for farmers to assess hive health. Open-pollination improved fruit quality, confirming that bee pollination enhances tomato production. However, the presence of M. quadrifasciata hives did not influence fruit quality, indicating that wild bees primarily drove pollination benefits. DNA metabarcoding analysis confirmed that M. quadrifasciata did not visit tomato flowers and relied mostly on pollen from arboreal plants. Our findings underscore the importance of conserving and promoting wild pollinators in organic agroecosystems by managing non-crop plants, which support diverse pollinator communities with complementary functional traits.