Stingless bee Trigona spinipes (Hymenoptera: Apidae) behavior on chayote flowers (Sechium edule)

Darclet Teresinha  Malerbo-Souza; Carlos Frederico Silva da  Costa; André Carlos Silva  Pimentel; Milena Oliveira de  Andrade; Rodrigo Alves de  Siqueira; Robin César Barros da  Silva; Camila Malerbo de  Souza; Felipe Gusmão de  Souza

Stingless bee Trigona spinipes (Hymenoptera: Apidae) behavior on chayote flowers (Sechium edule)

Autores

Darclet Teresinha Malerbo-Souza

Carlos Frederico Silva da Costa

André Carlos Silva Pimentel

Milena Oliveira de Andrade

Rodrigo Alves de Siqueira

Robin César Barros da Silva

Camila Malerbo de Souza

Felipe Gusmão de Souza

Editor

Universidade Estadual de Maringá

Descripción

This experiment aimed to evaluate the forage species and their effect on fruit production of the chayote crop. For this, the culture was under observation in the first ten minutes at each time, from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm, with three repetitions, in each year studied (1994, 2001, 2009 and 2016). With the exception of 2009, Trigona spinipes stingless bees were frequent and constant insects in these flowers between 8:00 am and 1:00 pm, visiting mainly male flowers for nectar collection and due to foraging behavior this stingless bee may be considered a pollinator of the chayote.