Foraging of Honeybees (Apis mellifera) on Flowers of Yellow Melon (Cucumis melo): Duration of Visits

Abstract

Studying the pollinators' foraging behaviour is quite important for pollination. Time spent by the pollinator in floral handling is one of the aspects of this behaviour. Honeybees (Apis mellifera) are the main responsible for the pollination of melon (Cucumis melo), but there are few studies on their foraging, mainly in the region of Petrolina, state of Pernambuco, and Juazeiro, state of Bahia, in Brazil. This study aimed to compare bee visitation to hermaphrodite (HF) and male (MF) flowers in a crop area where different number of hives were used. For each floral type, 10 flowers were observed, in each experiment (0, 1, 2 or 3 hives). The duration of bee visits (n = 10) was registered in three times of the day: 8 a.m., 11 a.m., and 4 p.m. In general, HF received significantly longer visits than MF, in all experiments, except when using one hive. In fact, significant correlations were found between the duration of visits and number of hives for HF, but not for MF. This is probably related to the attractiveness of HF and to the availability of floral resources. The studies of duration of pollinator' visits are relevant in agriculture and should be considered when evaluating the efficiency of pollination in melon.

Stingless Bees Pollination Increases Fruit Formation of Strawberry (Fragaria x annanassa Duch) and Melon (Cucumis melo L.)

“…Previously, reports of visiting activities of the stingless bees on melons have not been reported. Visiting activities of honey bee, A. mellifera on hermaphrodite and male flowers of yellow melon were reported in Brazil ( Ribeiro, da Silva, et al 2015 ; Ribeiro, Silva, et al . 2017 ).…”

Plant Attractants and Rewards for Pollinators: Their Significant to Successful Crop Pollination

“…Flowers that are animal-pollinated usually have larger showy petals of different sizes and shapes to attract pollinators. For example, study on two yellow melon hybrids showed that tropical hybrid has larger flowers that could be more attractive to bee species such as A. mellifera, [57] large solitary bees of genus Xylocopa by providing larger landing platform [58,59] compared to the other melon hybrids from Brazil. There is a positive connection between the size of flowers, inflorescences, or flower fields and attractiveness to insects.…”