摘要:

SUMMARYBehavioural observations and experiments on pollinator efficiency of stingless bees,Trigona carbonaria, and honey bees,Apis mellifera, visiting flowers of macadamia,Macadamia integrifolia, growing in orchards in Australia were performed. Stingless bees mainly collected pollen and this activity resulted in intimate contact with the stigma. Honey bees mainly collected nectar and came into contact with the stigma less often. Racemes which were enclosed in cages which excluded honey bees but allowed visitation by the smaller stingless bees yielded a nut set equal to that on open-pollinated racemes, showing that these bees are efficient pollinators. Honey bees worked flowers more quickly than stingless bees, visiting more flowers in a given time. Both bee species responded to racemes rich in pollen and nectar by remaining longer at those racemes and visiting more flowers on them.

ISSN:0021-8839    

DOI:10.1080/00218839.1994.11100870

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1994

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

SUMMARYOvarian development inMegachile rotundatawas studied in field-free, field-caged and laboratory-confined females in Alberta, Canada. Most of the increase in oocyte volume occurred during the second week after emergence. During the first seven days after emergence, females in the field fed on pollen and nectar and mated. Females in the laboratory had no access to pollen or to males, but half of them had access to honey. The presence of pollen in the diet appeared to stimulate vitellogenesis; a diet of honey alone or mating did not stimulate oocyte enlargement. There was a 70-fold increase in volume during oocyte development. The mean oocyte number per female increased two-fold during the main reproductive period compared with the number of oocytes in post-emergence or older females. The implications of these results for improved management and productivity ofM. rotundataare discussed.

ISSN:0021-8839    

DOI:10.1080/00218839.1994.11100871

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1994

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

SUMMARYWooden cages (10×8×8 cm), each containing 50 cm2of empty comb and 50 newly emerged workers of eitherApis melliferaorA. cerana, and equipped with feeders supplying 50% sugar syrup and water, were kept in an incubator at either 15°C, 20°C, 27°C or 35°C (n= 6 cages/treatment). Hoarding, the amount of syrup consumed plus syrup stored, was measured by weighing the syrup feeders every 24 h and was expressed as a 6-day average for days 1–6, 7–12, 13–18, 19–24 and 25–30 of the experiment. Dead bees were counted and removed from the cages. Hoarding was maximal between days 7 and 12, e.g. at 27°C it was 80.68±1.55 mg/bee/day forA. melliferaand 60.80±1.29 mg/bee/day forA. cerana.Hoarding decreased steadily after this, reaching 49.98±0.87 and 41.08±0.83 mg/bee/day forA. melliferaandA. cerana, respectively, after 25–30 days (at 27°C).A. melliferabees hoarded significantly more syrup (P<0.01) thanA. cerana, probably because of their larger size. Hoarding was maximal at 35°C for both species; between days 7 and 12 it was 131.94±1.98 mg/bee/day for/A.melliferaand 106.57±3.24 mg/bee/day forA. cerana.In both species, lifespan was highest (A. mellifera, 28.45±0.74 days;A. cerana, 28.57±2.17 days) at 35°C.

ISSN:0021-8839    

DOI:10.1080/00218839.1994.11100872

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1994

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

SUMMARYTwenty-five pairs of honey bee (Apis mellifera)colonies were established with the hives in each pair touching and the entrances facing the same direction. One colony in each pair had a light American foulbrood (AFB) infection (<50 larvae with clinical symptoms) while the other (control) was uninfected. The pairs remained together for 5–388 days (average 103 days). Any heavily infected colonies (<50 larvae with clinical symptoms) were removed from the trial. Only 2 of the control colonies developed AFB. In a separate trial with two pairs of colonies established in the same way, an average of 5.72% of marked bees were in the wrong hive after two days. Trials where 20 uninfected nucleus colonies were fed 50 000, 500 000 or 5 millionBacillus larvaespores in sugar syrup indicated that the control colonies were not particularly resistant to AFB; four of five colonies fed 5 million spores developed AFB. The results suggest that drifting of honey bees is not a particularly important cause of the spread of AFB.

ISSN:0021-8839    

DOI:10.1080/00218839.1994.11100873

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1994

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

SUMMARYCombs from 209 colonies ofApis floreawere collected in Khuzestan province, south-west Iran, in 1987–92 and examined for fungi.Aspergillus flavus, A. niger, A. fumigatus, Paecilo-mycessp.,Penicilliumsp., andPhomasp. were identified.Aspergillusspp., which are known to cause stonebrood inA. mellifera, were found frequently associated with drone brood ofA. floreaand may present a potential threat to this bee. Of the 600 mummies sectioned and examined microscopically, 252 (42%) were infected with Aflavus, 138 (23%) withA. niger, 72 (12%) withA, fumigatusand 102 (17%) with either two or three of these species. The other three species identified were associated with the remaining 36 (6%) of the specimens. This is the first report from Iran of an association of stone-brood-causing fungi withA. florea.The morphological characteristics of theAspergillusspecies found are described.

ISSN:0021-8839    

DOI:10.1080/00218839.1994.11100874

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1994

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

SUMMARYThe effects of sugar type (sucrose, glucose, fructose, and mixed monosaccharide), reward relative energy content, and floral colour (blue vs. white, or blue vs. yellow) on foraging behaviour of Asian hive bees (Apis cerana indica) visiting artificial flower patches were studied. In colour dimorphic flower patches, bees visited both flower colours extensively when caloric values of rewards were equivalent; some individuals randomly foraged with respect to colour while many bees showed various degrees of preference. When‘nectar’caloric rewards differed between flower morphs, bees switched to the flower colour with the greater reward irrespective of flower patch colour dimorphism. Energy maximization (calories/time) was a robust predictor ofA. ceranabehaviour with respect to the sugar types. The foraging behaviour ofA. ceranadiffered from that reported forA. mellifera.Although both species foraged in accordance with predictions of an energy maximization model on blue-white dimorphic flower patches, individual constancy was not observed forA. ceranaon blue-yellow dimorphic flower patches as reported forA. mellifera.Models based uponApissocial structure, caste system, morphology, and domestication were unable to account for this interspecific difference. However, species-related forager size and colony size differences were correlated with the observed results. These correlations suggest that work partitioning which minimizes forager interference may be more important to Amelliferathan to Acerana, and that the species may base foraging actions on different initial perceptions of‘same’and‘different’when viewing a floral dimorphism.

ISSN:0021-8839    

DOI:10.1080/00218839.1994.11100875

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1994

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

SUMMARYIn the Kathmandu valley of Nepal, cauliflower(Brassica oleraceavar.botrytis) and cabbage (Brassica oleraceavar.capitata) plants had averages of 7 branches with 600 flowers and 12 branches with 94 flowers, respectively. Flower diameter was 14.9 mm in cauliflower and 13.8 mm in cabbage. The yellow flowers of both crops opened in the morning and remained open for two to three days; the total flowering period of each crop lasted for about one month, with cauliflower beginning in mid-February and cabbage in mid-March.Apis ceranacolonies were caged individually with plants of the target crops. Bees started foraging on cauliflower and cabbage at c. 07.00 h and 06.30 h, respectively, and ceased flight activity atc. 18.00 h and 18.30 h, respectively. Foraging on cauliflower started at ambient temperatures of 7°C. Peak foraging activity was between 11.00 h and 13.00 h for each crop. The duration of individual foraging trips was 26.9 min for cauliflower and 23.9 min for cabbage. Visits to individual flowers lasted from 4.3 to 6.7 s during the day in both crops; bees visited 5–8 flowers/min. On each crop bees collected either pollen or nectar but never both during the same foraging trip. For both crops, pollen collectors outnumbered nectar collectors during the morning while the opposite occurred in the afternoon. Individual loads of cauliflower pollen weighed 5–9 mg; cabbage pollen loads weighed 8–10 mg. Fruit set on cauliflower plants pollinated byA. ceranawas 57% higher than on control plants (pollinators excluded) and 20% higher than on open- pollinated plants. Fruit set on cabbage plants following bee pollination was 27% higher than on open-pollinated plants; control plants did not set fruit. Siliques (fruits) from control, open-pollinated and bee-pollinated cauliflower plants had 3,15 and 20 seeds, respectively. Open-pollinated and bee-pollinated siliques of cabbage had 18 and 28 seeds, respectively. Germination of seeds from bee-pollinated plants was 16% and 12% higher than for seeds from control and open-pollinated cauliflower plants, respectively, and 28% higher than for seeds from open-pollinated cabbage plants.

ISSN:0021-8839    

DOI:10.1080/00218839.1994.11100876

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1994

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

SUMMARYIn the Kathmandu valley of Nepal radish (Raphanus sativus) plants had an average often branches, each with 155.2±18.3 flowers, 14.1±1.3 mm in diameter. Flowers opened in the morning and remained open for two to three days. Flowering began in the first week of March and lasted for one month.Apis ceranaworkers foraged on radish plants for 11.5 hours each day, from 06.40 h (26 min after sunrise) to 18.30 h (18 min after sunset) with peak foraging between 11.00 h and 14.00 h. At 09.00, 12.00 and 15.00 h respectively, workers averaged 4.3, 5.3 and 12.8 s per flower, visited 8.0, 9.0 and 5.0 flowers per minute and collected 11, 10 and 7 mg of pollen. Most workers collected either pollen or nectar, but 4–7% collected both nectar and pollen during the same foraging trip. Pod set, number of seeds per pod, seed weight and germination for radish plants caged with anA. ceranacolony were 45%, 42%, 45% and 73% greater, respectively, than for open-pollinated plants. Plants with insect visitors excluded had no pod set.

ISSN:0021-8839    

DOI:10.1080/00218839.1994.11100877

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1994

数据来源: Taylor

ISSN:0021-8839    

DOI:10.1080/00218839.1994.11100878

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1994

数据来源: Taylor