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Fruit and seed set in insect-pollinated agricultural crops rely primarily on honeybees because of their ease of management and transportation. In many fruit and vegetable crops, the number of bee visitations can be the limiting step in obtaining optimal yield. Increasing the attractiveness of flowers to honeybees could, therefore, provide a useful means of improving fruit yield and seed production. Genetic variability in attractiveness to honeybees was found within the genus Citrullus. The number of daily visits per flower ranged from six to 12 among cultivars. Moreover, most of the visits to the more attractive cultivars occurred in the first hour of bee activity, whereas visits to the less attractive cultivars started later in the morning. A positive relationship was found between the frequency of bee visitations and seed number per fruit. Analyses of floral attributes indicated no genetic variability in flower size, amount of pollen grains, or nectar volume; however, differences were observed in the concentration of sucrose and total sugars in the nectar. A positive relationship was found between attractiveness to bees and nectar sugar concentration, suggesting that this characteristic is one of the parameters responsible for variability in attractiveness to honeybees.

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‘Bluecrop’ blueberry in greenhouses. ( A ) Bombus terrestris ; ( B ) Apis cerana ; and ( C ) Apis mellifera . Flower-visiting behavior and pollination efficiency. At an early flowering stage of ‘Bluecrop’ blueberry in mid-January, we selected

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Cucurbitaceae, Avignon, France, 21–24 May 2008. p. 385–389 Hart, J. Butler, M. 2004 Nutrient management guide: Hybrid seed carrot. Oregon State Univ. Ext. Serv. Publ. EM 8879-E Higo, H.A. Colley, S.J. Winston, M.L. 1992 Effects of honey bee ( Apis mellifera L

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, 1991 ). In North America, Apis mellifera , the European honeybee, is used extensively to provide pollination services for cranberry ( Evans and Spivak, 2006 ; Ratti et al., 2008 ; personal observation). However, cranberry flowers have poricidal

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specimens of each of the nine most commonly captured visitors, plus Apis mellifera , were selected to determine the number of pollen grains carried on insect bodies. Individuals used for this experiment were selected at random from the entire collection of

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berry size in highbush blueberry ( MacKenzie, 1997 ). Most commercial producers in Washington and the greater Pacific Northwest (PNW) rent hives of Italian honey bees ( A. mellifera ligustica ) for pollination services. Hives are generally placed in

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Abstract

Open plots of strawbery (Fragaria sp.) or plots caged with colonies of honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) produced less malformed fruit than plots screened to exclude large insects. Bees and large Diptera, mostly drone flies (Eristalis spp.), were the most numerous visitors to the strawberry blossoms. A list of insects including 108 species representing 35 families frequenting strawberry blossoms in Utah was compiled. The most efficient pollinators were Apis mellifera, Halictus ligatus Say, and Eristalis spp.

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activity of bees ( Apis mellifera ) when climatic conditions are unfavorable, such as insufficient solar radiation and temperature ( Camacho and Fernandez, 2000 ; Hayata and Niimi, 1995 ; Hayata et al., 2000 ). Under such conditions, pollinator activity

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The effectiveness of bumblebees, Bombus impatiens, and honeybees, Apis mellifera, on the pollination of cucumber, Cucumis sativus, was compared at the individual bee level. A correlation between the number of bee visits a flower received and the resultant seed set was established. In both cucumber varieties, `Calypso' and `Dasher II', B. impatiens-visited flowers consistently had higher seed sets than A. mellifera when compared at equal visit numbers. This difference between bee types was found to be highly significant.

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Abstract

Effective, inexpensive, disposable pollination aids (bee-sticks) can be made by gluing the thoraxes of dead honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) to the tips of wooden toothpicks. Bee-sticks also are suitable for the short and long term storage and for shipment of pollen.

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