Pollination of tomatoes by the stingless bee Melipona quadrifasciata and the honey bee Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera, Apidae)

Abstract

The pollination effectiveness of the stingless bee Melipona quadrifasciata and the honey bee Apis mellifera was tested in tomato plots. The experiment was conducted in four greenhouses as well as in an external open plot in Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil. The tomato plants were exposed to visits by M. quadrifasciata in one greenhouse and to A. mellifera in another; two greenhouses were maintained without bees (controls) and an open field plot was exposed to pollinators in an area where both honey bee and stingless bee colonies are abundant. We counted the number of tomatoes produced in each plot. Two hundred tomatoes from each plot were weighed, their vertical and transversal circumferences were measured, and the seeds were counted. We collected 253 Chrysomelidae, 17 Halictidae, one Paratrigona sp, and one honey bee from the flowers of the tomato plants in the open area. The largest number of fruits (1414 tomatoes), the heaviest and largest tomatoes, and the ones with the most seed were collected from the greenhouse with stingless bees. Fruits cultivated in the greenhouse with honey bees had the same weight and size as those produced in one of the control greenhouses. The stingless bee, M. quadrifasciata, was significantly more ef-©FUNPEC-RP www.funpecrp.com.br Genetics and Molecular Research 8 (2): 751-757 (2009) S.A. Bispo dos Santos et al. ficient than honey bees in pollinating greenhouse tomatoes.

Colony Performance of Melipona quadrifasciata (Hymenoptera, Meliponina) in a Greenhouse of Lycopersicon esculentum (Solanaceae)

“…depilis Moure, 1942 and N. testaceicornis ; sweet pepper pollination, using M. subnitida Ducke, 1910(Cruz et al, 2005, M. quadrifasciata anthidioides Lepeletier, 1836 (Roselino et al, 2010) and M. scutellaris Latreille, 1811 (Roselino et al, 2010); and tomato pollination, tested with N. perilampoides Cresson, 1878 (Cauich et al, 2004;Palma et al, 2008b) and M. quadrifasciata Bispo dos Santos et al, 2009).…”

Western honey bee management for crop pollination

“…Thought the honey bee is the most used species for crop pollination, it is not a panacea for all pollination deficit problems. Apis mellifera is not the most effective pollinators of all crops Greenleaf and Kremen, 2006;Bispo dos Santos et al, 2009). Therefore, other managed bees such as bumble bees (Bombus spp.)…”

“…Tomato growers use hand-held electrical shakers mainly in greenhouses, a method that is also expensive and can damage flowers (Bispo et al, 2009). In other cases, farmers use pollen sprays (Bahadur et al, 2015), but the majority of farmers have recourse to managed bees to ensure crop pollination.…”

Reduced-risk insecticides in Neotropical stingless bee species: impact on survival and activity

“…5 Such fact has obscured the importance of stingless bees and only little research has undertaken on this topic. [5][6][7][8] Stingless bees species are the primary pollinators of wild and cultivated plants in Neotropical America [9][10][11][12] and they may be important even in the presence of the honeybee. 5,8,9 Therefore, stingless bees demand more attention regarding the potential effects of pesticides in this particular geographic region.…”

“…Such stingless bees' species are important native pollinators in the Neotropical America. [10][11][12][13]25 The group activity and flight take-off of adult workers exposed to azadirachtin or chlorantraniliprole were also assessed for impact prediction on behavior of both native bee species.…”