Abstract:
The targeted pollination strategy has shown positive results in directing honey bees to crop flowers offering nectar along with pollen as reward. Kiwifruit is a functionally dioecious species, which relies on bees to transport pollen from staminate to pistillate nectarless flowers. Following the targeted pollination procedures recently validated, we first developed a mimic odor (KM) based on kiwifruit floral volatiles for which bees showed the highest level of generalization to the natural floral scent, although the response towards pistillate flowers was higher than towards staminate flowers. Then, in the field, feeding colonies KM-scented sucrose solution resulted in higher amounts of kiwifruit pollen collected by honey bees compared to control colonies fed unscented sucrose solution. Our results support the hypothesis that olfactory conditioning bees biases their foraging preferences in a nectarless crop, given the higher visitation to target flowers despite having provided the mimic odor paired with a sugar reward.
摘要:
有针对性的授粉策略在指导蜜蜂种植提供花蜜和花粉作为奖励的花朵方面显示出积极的结果。猕猴桃是一种功能上雌雄异株的物种,它依靠蜜蜂将花粉从雄花运输到雌蕊无轴花。根据最近验证的有针对性的授粉程序,我们首先开发了一种基于猕猴桃花挥发物的模拟气味(KM),蜜蜂对天然花香的概括程度最高,尽管对雌花的反应高于对雄花的反应。然后,在野外,与饲喂无味蔗糖溶液的对照菌落相比,饲喂菌落KM香味蔗糖溶液导致蜜蜂收集的猕猴桃花粉量更高。我们的结果支持以下假设:嗅觉调理蜜蜂会偏向其在无油作物中的觅食偏好,尽管提供了与糖奖励配对的模拟气味,但对目标花朵的访问率较高。