Techniques to Increase the Attractiveness of Kiwi Flowers to Honey Bees

Tsirakoglou, V.; Thrasyvoulou, Andreas; Hatjina, Fani

doi:10.17660/actahortic.1997.444.68

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Several field trials have been carried out to encourage honey bees to visit more kiwifruit flowers, but with little success. , In NZ kiwifruit orchards, Goodwin et al have shown that providing in-hive feeders of sugar solution during the flowering period increases the amount of kiwifruit pollen collected by those hives. However, kiwifruit still need high hive densities to achieve sufficient pollination rates, and further behavioral manipulations at the colony level will be required for more efficient pollination.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kiwifruit Flower Odor Perception and Recognition by Honey Bees, Apis mellifera

Twidle

Mas

Harper

et al. 2015

J. Agric. Food Chem.

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Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from male and female kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa 'Hayward') flowers were collected by dynamic headspace sampling. Honey bee (Apis mellifera) perception of the flower VOCs was tested using gas chromatography coupled to electroantennogram detection. Honey bees consistently responded to six compounds present in the headspace of female kiwifruit flowers and five compounds in the headspace of male flowers. Analysis of the floral volatiles by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and microscale chemical derivatization showed the compounds to be nonanal, 2-phenylethanol, 4-oxoisophorone, (3E,6E)-α-farnesene, (6Z,9Z)-heptadecadiene, and (8Z)-heptadecene. Bees were then trained via olfactory conditioning of the proboscis extension response (PER) to synthetic mixtures of these compounds using the ratios present in each flower type. Honey bees trained to the synthetic mixtures showed a high response to the natural floral extracts, indicating that these may be the key compounds for honey bee perception of kiwifruit flower odor.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kiwifruit Flower Odor Perception and Recognition by Honey Bees, Apis mellifera

Twidle

Mas

Harper

et al. 2015

J. Agric. Food Chem.

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“…It was also indicated by previous studies that flowers with high level of floral VOCs can improve pollination service (Majetic et al 2009;Parachnowitsch et al 2012). For instance, field trials with flower scent manipulation to increase honeybee's visitation to kiwifruit flowers led to some success (Pinzauti 1990;Tsirakoglou et al 1997). Thus, crop production may be improved through genetic manipulation of the floral scent (Henning and Teuber 1992;Kobayashi et al 2012;Twidle et al 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Roles of flower scent in bee?flower mediations: a review

Bisrat

Jung

2022

J Ecol Environ

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Background: Bees and flowering plants associations were initially began during the early Cretaceous, 120 million years ago. This coexistence has led to a mutual relationship where the plant serves as food and in return, the bee help them their reproduction. Animals pol linate about 75% of food crops worldwide, with bees as the world's primary pollinator. In general, bees rely on flower scents to locate blooming flowers as visual clue is limited and also their host plants from a distance. In this review, an attempt is made to collect some relevant 107 published papers from three scientific databases, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science database, covering the period from 1959 to 2021. Results: Flowering plants are well documented to actively emit volatile organic com pounds (VOCs). However, only a few of them are important for eliciting behavioral re sponses in bees. In this review, fiftythree volatile organic compounds belonging to differ ent class of compounds, mainly terpenoids, benzenoids, and volatile fatty acid derivatives, is compiled here from floral scents that are responsible for eliciting behavioral responses in bees. Bees generally use honest floral signals to locate their host plants with nectar and pollenrich flowers. Thus, honest signaling mechanism plays a key role in maintaining mu tualistic plant-pollinator associations. Conclusions: Considering the fact that floral scents are the primary attractants, under standing and identification of VOCs from floral scent in plantpollinator networks are cru cial to improve crop pollination. Interestingly, current advances in both VOCs scent gene identification and their biosynthetic pathways make it possible to manipulate particular VOCs in plant, and this eventually may lead to increase in crop productivity.

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“…In hermaphrodite crops that experience nectar theft from nectar foragers and for which pollen foragers are better pollinators, like apple tree ( Malus domestica Borkh. [Rosales: Rosaceae]; Robinson and Fell 1981 , Thomson and Goodell 2001 ), or in crops that rely only on pollen foragers for pollination such as kiwifruit ( Actinidia deliciosa C. F. Liang & A. R. Ferguson C. F. Liang & A. R. Ferguson [Ericales: Actinidiaceae]), some authors have proposed to increase the pollen foraging activity by fitting hives with pollen traps ( Webster et al 1985 , Gemeda et al 2018 ), by treating them with brood pheromone ( Pankiw 2004 , Sagili et al 2015 ), or by removing pollen stores ( Tsirakoglou et al 1997 ). The sequential introduction of colonies and the provision of bumble bee colonies or mason bees can also help decreasing honey bee nectar theft and enhancing cross-pollination by increasing honey bee movements between rows of different cultivars ( Stern et al 2001 , 2004 , 2005 , Brittain et al 2013 , Sapir et al 2017 , Eeraerts et al 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Supplementing honey bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) colonies with pollen increases their pollinating activity on nectariferous crops with anthers isolated from stigmas

Chabert,

Morison,

Buffière

et al. 2023

Journal of Economic Entomology

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The western honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) is the most globally used managed pollinator species, but it can have limited pollinating activity on nectariferous crops displaying anthers isolated from stigmas, i.e., when anthers are spatially or temporally separated from stigma within or between flowers. We supplemented honey bee colonies with pollen in the combs or in paste form laid on top of the hive frames to test if these treatments could reduce their pollen foraging and increase their pollinating activity in a monoecious and nectariferous cultivar of cantaloupe melon (Cucumis melo L.), in comparison with control colonies not supplemented. We recorded the pollen forager density per flower, the number of pollen grains deposited per stigma and their resulting fruit set, seed set and fruit mass, before and after the colony pollen supplementations. The number of pollen grains deposited by honey bees on stigmas increased gradually after pollen supplementation in the combs. But pollen foraging decreased only moderately, and no effect could be observed on any yield component except the seed set. On the other hand, there was no effect of the pollen paste laid on top of the frames either on stigmatic pollen loads, on colony pollen foraging or on any yield component. Supplementing honey bee colonies with pollen in the combs can therefore be an effective means for increasing their pollinating activity in nectariferous crops displaying anthers isolated from stigmas, e.g., Amaryllidaceae, Apiaceae, Cucurbitaceae, avocado, all hybrid seed productions. The context for the potential use of pollen substitutes is discussed.

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Techniques to Increase the Attractiveness of Kiwi Flowers to Honey Bees

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Kiwifruit Flower Odor Perception and Recognition by Honey Bees, Apis mellifera

Kiwifruit Flower Odor Perception and Recognition by Honey Bees, Apis mellifera

Roles of flower scent in bee?flower mediations: a review

Supplementing honey bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) colonies with pollen increases their pollinating activity on nectariferous crops with anthers isolated from stigmas

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