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

• Autor(a) principal: KIILL, L. H. P.
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: SIQUEIRA, K. M. M., COELHO, M. S., SILVA, T. A., GAMA, D. R. S., ARAÚJO, D. C. S., PEREIRA NETO, J.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da EMBRAPA (Repository Open Access to Scientific Information from EMBRAPA - Alice)
• Texto Completo: http://www.alice.cnptia.embrapa.br/alice/handle/doc/1006625
• topic: Biologia floral; Melon; Melão; Polinização; Abelha; Inseto; Apis Mellifera; Cucumis Melo; Néctar; Pólen

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.