Frequency and foraging behavior of Apis mellifera in two melon hybrids in Juazeiro, state of Bahia, Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: KIILL,LÚCIA H.P.
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: SIQUEIRA,KÁTIA M.M., MÁRCIA S.,COELHO, SILVA,TAMIRES A., GAMA,DIEGO R.S., ARAÚJO,DIEGO C.S., PEREIRA NETO,JOAQUIM
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0001-37652014000402049
• topic: Cucumis melo L; melon hybrids; nectar; pollen

The study was carried out to verify if there are differences in foraging frequency and behavior of Apis mellifera in two melon hybrids (10:00 – ‘Yellow melon’ and Sancho -‘Piel de Sapo’) in the municipality of Juazeiro, state of Bahia, Brazil. The frequency, behavior of visitors and the floral resource foraged were registered from 5:00 am to 6:00 pm. There was a significant difference in the frequency of visits when comparing hydrids (F = 103.74, p <0.0001), floral type (F = 47.25, p <0.0001) and resource foraged (F = 239.14, p <0.0001). The flowers of Sancho were more attractive to A. mellifera when compared with hybrid 10:00, which may be correlated to the morphology and floral resources available. This could be solved with scaled planting, avoiding the overlapping of flowering of both types.