Honey bee as an effective pollinating agent of pumpkin

Abstract

The production of fruits and seeds of many crops is increased when bees visit their flowers pollinating them. The aim of this research was to study the pollination of pumpkins (Cucurbita maxima Duch. var. Exposição), to determine the diversity of insects visiting its flowers, the time and type of provision obtained and the effect of the visits on fruit set, fruit size and weight, and number of seeds. Apis mellifera L. accounted for 73.4% of the visits made by bees, collecting pollen during 34.5 s per flower and nectar in 43.9 s and 29.3 s from female and male flowers, respectively. Trigona spinipes (Fabr.) collected only nectar, during a mean time of 60.5 s per flower, and represented 26.6% of the visits by bees. Diabrotica speciosa (Germ.) only fed on the petals of the flower. When no insect visits occurred, there was no production of fruits. In the flowers with free visitation by insects, fruit set was 40%. The higher the number of visits, up to 16, by A. mellifera to female flowers, the greater was the fruit set, fruit size and weight, and number of seeds. In flowers visited by insects from the onset of anthesis until 9 a.m., fruit set was 35%. After 9 a.m., there was no fruit set, demonstrating the important role of A. mellifera as a pollinating agent of pumpkin, since it was the only insect visiting up to 9 a.m.

Pollination and fruit set in pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo) by honey bees

“…Stephenson et al (1988) found lower fruit set, fruit growth rate and fruit size in zucchini, from flowers treated with low and medium pollen load (240 and 480 pollen grains) than the fruits resulting from flowers with high pollen load or free visitation. Nicodemo et al (2009) reached highest fruit set level when the number of visit by Apis mellifera was 16 per female flower of pumpkin. Although pumpkin fruit set will occur with natural pollinators, the addition of honey bee colonies will ensure the presence of pollinators, to maximize fruit size (Walters & Taylor 2006) The specific objectives of this work were: (a) determine the amount of pollen removed from anthers after different number of bee visits and the amount of pollen collected per bee at different periods of the day; (b) Estimate the number of pollen grains deposited on the stigma by honey bees; (c) Relate pollination and fruit set of the pumpkin to pollen load on the stigma, and (d) evaluate the influence of the male flower nectary's opening on the flower's attractiveness to honey bees.…”

Cytogenetic analysis of the Amazon stingless bee Melipona seminigra merrillae reveals different chromosome number for the genus

“…Although widely distribute throughout the Neotropics (Michener, 2007) and found in all Brazilian States, Melipona species richness is higher in the Amazon basin region, where possibly many of them still undescribed (Silveira et al, 2002). The stingless bees, as a group, are relating to forest environments (Brosi, 2009) being one of the main native pollinators (Michener, 2007), besides some species are important in crop and greenhouse pollination as well (Heard, 1999;Nicodemo et al, 2009;Slaa et al, 2006). Cytogenetically, Melipona is the beststudied genus of the Meliponini, with 19 species studied so far, all presenting 2n = 18 chromosomes for females and n = 9 for males (Rocha et al, 2007).…”

Enhanced production of parthenocarpic cucumbers pollinated with stingless bees and Africanized honey bees in greenhouses

“…In an assessment of the importance of bees for Aodai cucumber production, Nogueira- Couto and Calmona (1993) concluded that honey bees facilitate cucumber fruit set due to their visits to the flowers, thus promoting pollination. Africanized bees can efficiently pollinate several species of the genus Cucurbita (FREE, 1993;NICODEMO et al, 2009, VIDAL et al, 2010.…”

Improved Pollination Efficiency and Reduced Honey Bee Colony Decline in Greenhouses by Allowing Access to the Outside During Part of the Day

“…mean weight of the fruit was less than 300 g. Excess visitation can induce the bees to remove pollen grains that have been deposited on the stigmas, whether intentional or not, as was found in a field experiment involving pollination of pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima) in an area with 1,200 m² of plantings and 30 colonies of honey bees (Nicodemo et al, 2009).…”

Seed biology of Mikania micrantha in Viti Levu, Fiji

“…It produces a large number of florets (up to 616 000 per m 2 ; Zhang et al, 2003), which are predominantly self-incompatible and cross-pollinated by insects (Hong et al, 2007). Thus, the amount of viable seed that is produced is large and positively correlated with the abundance of the appropriate pollinators and the frequency of their floral visits (Oz et al, 2008;Nicodemo et al, 2009). Furthermore, insect activity is significantly reduced during wet weather and so fewer flowers are pollinated (Hegland et al, 2009) and presumably less seed is set.…”