In the current scenario of a general decline of the honeybee worldwide, studies on the potential of alternative bee species in pollinating cultivated plants are important. Although melon, Cucumis melo, is a crop with great commercial importance, there is very little information on its pollinating fauna in Europe, and none from the southern Mediterranean area. In a locality in central Spain, using both pan‐traps and net collections, we found that melon flowers are visited by 31 species of bees spanning four families, though only four were both dominant and constant. These four species belonged to the family Halictidae (sweat bees) and mostly (three species) to the genus Lasioglossum. Five other species could be defined as accessory: honeybee, Apis mellifera, and four other halictids. Individuals of the dominant species were smaller, on average, than those from all the other species. Observations on the frequency of pollen and nectar foraging and on flower visit duration further suggested L. malachurum as the potential key pollinator. Females of this species started to forage on melon early in the flowering season and exhibited two activity peaks in summer, thus covering the whole season. Although in other sites across continents melon seems to be more heavily pollinated by honeybees, this seems to be not the case in the Mediterranean, where sweat bees seem to be the major pollinators of this crop.
BACKGROUND: Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) is a commercially important tree in the Mediterranean basin, where there is a considerable increase in cultivation, especially in Spain. Because of its recent introduction as a crop in the country (1980s), studies on the pests of pistachio in Spain are still rare. Here, we studied the leaf beetle Labidostomis lusitanica (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), which was observed on pistachio and might become a serious pest under the expanding Spanish pistachio fields. Because early detection of pests is extremely important to properly plan control strategies, we (i) updated the information on the distribution of the species through samplings and surveys, and (ii) modelled its potential distribution. RESULTS: Currently, L. lusitanica occurs across the whole Iberian Peninsula, especially in its southern and eastern parts, with adults on flight roughly from late April to early June. Analysis of climatic niches showed that L. lusitanica prefers dry and hot areas, which are conditions found especially in the central-southern parts of the Iberian Peninsula. Such highly suitable areas for this pest overlap considerably with the suitable areas for pistachio cultivation. Surveys of pistachio growers weakly suggested a higher pest attack probability, but, unexpectedly, a lower perceived impact in very suitable areas for L. lusitanica, suggesting that other factors may shape its pest potential in a complex way. CONCLUSION: In line with what has been observed for other Labidostomis species on pistachio in other Mediterranean countries, L. lusitanica has a good potential to harm pistachio production in Spain, claiming for further investigations and prevention strategies.
Pollinators of most of the plants cultivated in in the Mediterranean regions of Europe are still unknown. We provide new data and we review previously available information on bees (Apoidea Latreille, 1802) associated with three economically important crops in Spain: melon, watermelon and almond. We found that overall 138 bee species spanning four families visit the studied crop species. The bee assemblages of melon includes 8-35 species, with moderate to high importance of small Lasioglossum Curtis, 1833 (Halictidae Thomson, 1869) and honeybee (Apis mellifera Linnaeus, 1758: Apidae Latreille, 1802). Watermelon flowers are visited by 14-20 species of bees, with low to moderate abundance of honeybees and predominance of small Lasioglossum. Bees collected on almond trees spanned 12-37 species, being the honeybee and medium-size to large Andrena Fabricius, 1775 (Andrenidae Latreille, 1802) and Osmia Panzer, 1806 (Megachilidae Latreille, 1802) predominant. The new samples expanded the geographical distributions of nearly one-fourth of the collected species. Diversity estimators slightly varied even within fields of the same crop, and a cluster analysis suggests both a certain overlap between melon and watermelon and a role of geographical distance on similarity among bee assemblages. Below ground-nesting and solitary species were more frequent than above ground-nesting and eusocial species, but for melon and watermelon the highest abundances were recorded for eusocial
Se presentan los resultados de diversos muestreos llevados a cabo sobre parcelas cultivadas de pistachero en diferentes localidades de Castilla – La Mancha, en las provincias de Ciudad Real, Cuenca y Toledo. Se han encontrado un total de 8 especies de Curculionidae, de 5 géneros (Brachyderes, Otiorhynchus, Polydrusus, Sitona y Lixus) correspondientes a 2 subfamilias: ENTIMINAE y LIXINAE. Brachyderes marginellus, B. pubescens, Polydrusus subglaber, Otiorhynchus cribricollis y Lixus acicularis se han observado alimentándose de hojas de P. vera y se citan por primera vez sobre esta planta huésped. Polydrusus subglaber y Otiorhynchus cribricollis devoran intensamente sus hojas, por lo que se propone seguir investigando estas dos especies como importantes defoliadores de pistacho en la región. Se aportan datos biológicos y corológicos para las especies encontradas.
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