Palma Gerardo, Quezada-Euán José Javier G, Meléndez-Ramirez Virginia, Irigoyen Javier, Valdovinos-Nuñez Gustavo R, Rejón Manuel
Departamento de Apicultura, Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad.
J Econ Entomol. 2008 Feb;101(1):132-8. doi: 10.1603/0022-0493(2008)101[132:ceonpb]2.0.co;2.
The native bee Nannotrigona perilampoides Cresson (Apidae: Meliponini) has been evaluated with promising results in greenhouse pollination of Solanaceae in Mexico. However, no comparison has been done with imported bumble bees (Apidae: Bombini), which are the most common bees used for greenhouse pollination. We compared the foraging activity and fruit production of habanero pepper. Capsicum chinense Jacquin, by using N. perilampoides and Bombus impatiens Cresson in pollination cages. Both bee species collected pollen on a similar number of flowers per unit time, but N. perilampoides visited significantly more flowers per trip, lasted longer on each flower, and spent more time per foraging trip. Ambient temperature and light intensity significantly affected the foraging activity of N. perilampoides. Light intensity was the only environmental variable that affected B. impatiens. Except for the fruit set, there were not significant differences in the quality of fruit produced by both bee species; however, N. perilampoides and B. impatiens performed better than mechanical vibration for all the variables measured. The abortion of fruit caused the low fruit set produced by B. impatiens, and we speculate it might be due to an excessive visitation rate. Pollination efficiency per visit (Spear's pollination efficiency index) was similar for both bee species in spite of the significantly lower amount of pollen removed by N. perilampoides. We suggested that the highest number of flowers visited per foraging trip coupled with adequate amounts of pollen transported, and transferred between flowers, could explain the performance of N. perilampoides as a good pollinator of habanero pepper. Our experiments confirm that N. perilampoides could be used as an alternative pollinator to Bombus in hot pepper under tropical climates.
本土蜜蜂危地马拉小无刺蜂（Nannotrigona perilampoides Cresson，蜜蜂科：无刺蜂族）在墨西哥用于茄科植物温室授粉，已取得了不错的评估结果。然而，尚未与用于温室授粉最常见的进口熊蜂（蜜蜂科：熊蜂族）进行比较。我们在授粉笼中使用危地马拉小无刺蜂和西方熊蜂（Bombus impatiens Cresson），比较了它们对哈瓦那辣椒（Capsicum chinense Jacquin）的觅食活动和果实产量。两种蜜蜂在单位时间内采集花粉的花朵数量相近，但危地马拉小无刺蜂每次出行访问的花朵明显更多，在每朵花上停留的时间更长，每次觅食出行花费的时间也更多。环境温度和光照强度显著影响危地马拉小无刺蜂的觅食活动。光照强度是影响西方熊蜂的唯一环境变量。除了坐果率，两种蜜蜂所产果实的质量没有显著差异；然而，在所有测量变量上，危地马拉小无刺蜂和西方熊蜂都比机械振动表现更好。果实败育导致西方熊蜂的坐果率较低，我们推测这可能是由于访问率过高所致。尽管危地马拉小无刺蜂移除的花粉量明显较低，但两种蜜蜂每次访问的授粉效率（斯皮尔授粉效率指数）相似。我们认为，每次觅食出行访问的花朵数量最多，再加上运输和在花朵间转移的花粉量充足，可以解释危地马拉小无刺蜂作为哈瓦那辣椒良好传粉者的表现。我们的实验证实，在热带气候下，危地马拉小无刺蜂可以作为熊蜂的替代传粉者用于辣椒授粉。
