Visita de abejas (Apis mellifera, Hymenoptera: Apoidea) a flores de melón Cucumis melo (Cucurvitaceae en Panam
- ISSN: 00347744
Abstract
Bee (Apis mellifera, Hymenoptera: Apoidea) visitation to cantaloupe Cucumis melo (Cucurvitaceae) flowers in Panama. Flower visits by bees were observed in a melon cultivated field of San Lorenzo district, in Chiriquí, Panama, from January 6 to February 19, 2002, from 6:30 am to 4:30 pm We recorded the duration of each foraging event and the type of resource collected. Flower visits were mostly for nectar collection (&8764;75 %). Pollen foraging was concentrated in the first hours of the morning and ended by 11:00 am The mean collection time was similar for both food resources, but was different between flower sexes. Flower visits to female flowers took longer (Student's t test, p<0.0001), with a mean time duration of 8.44.4 s, whereas in male flowers mean visitation time was of 4.01.5 s. Finally, the mean time for each floral sex remained practically constant through the evolution of the crop. Our results were similar to the found ones in temperate zone crops, so apparently tropical conditions of Panama do not change the bee visit patterns on melon flowers. Rev. Biol. Trop. 55 (2): 677-680. Epub 2007 June, 29.
Sign up today - FREE
Mendeley saves you time finding and organizing research. Learn more
- All your research in one place
- Add and import papers easily
- Access it anywhere, anytime
Start using Mendeley in seconds!
Readership Statistics
Groups
 |