Avocado crops as a floral resource for native bees of Chile

Monzón-Godoy, Víctor; Avendaño, Patricio; Araujo-Oliveira, Rodrigo; Garrido, Rubén; Mesquita-Neto, José  N.

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dc.contributor.author	Monzón-Godoy, Víctor
dc.contributor.author	Avendaño, Patricio
dc.contributor.author	Araujo-Oliveira, Rodrigo
dc.contributor.author	Garrido, Rubén
dc.contributor.author	Mesquita-Neto, José N.
dc.date.accessioned	2020-10-20T12:26:35Z
dc.date.available	2020-10-20T12:26:35Z
dc.date.issued	2020
dc.identifier.uri	http://repositorio.ucm.cl/handle/ucm/3111
dc.description.abstract	Background: Chile is the second largest avocado producer in the world. However, there have been few studies on interactions between native bees and avocado pollination in a Chilean environment. The flowering period of avocado is very sensitive to temperature fluctuations and so environmental conditions, particularly cool temperatures, can have a strong influence on its floral behaviour. Thus, we aimed to determine whether temperature also influences bee visitation rates to avocado flowers or if this was due to the number of available flowers. Moreover, we proposed to verify the attractiveness of avocado flowers to native bees and compare flower handling time and type of floral resource collected between managed and native bees. Methods: An avocado orchard of “Hass” cultivar located in the Mediterranean region of Chile was studied during the flowering season of 2016. The frequency of exotic and native bee species in flowers, floral phenology, and environmental temperature were analysed, and the foraging behaviours of exotic and native bee species in avocado flowers compared. Results: Five Chilean native and two exotic species were recorded visiting avocado flowers at the studied orchard. The bees generally sought nectar rather than pollen. The European honeybee (Apis mellifera) was the most frequent flower visitor, followed by the native species Colletes cyanescens and Cadeguala occidentalis. There was a strong positive correlation between temperature and number of visits, but no significant correlation between number of open flowers and number of visits. Conclusions: Native Chilean bees visited avocado flowers and some of them were frequent floral visitors. They generally sought for nectar rather than pollen and were as fast as honeybees handling avocado flowers. The environmental temperature plays a key role in the frequency of bees in avocado flowers. The warmer weather is related to the higher number of bees visits to avocado flowers.	es_CL
dc.language.iso	en	es_CL
dc.rights	Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 3.0 Chile	*
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/cl/	*
dc.source	Revista Chilena de Historia Natural, 93	es_CL
dc.subject	Temperature	es_CL
dc.subject	Mediterranean	es_CL
dc.subject	Apis mellifera	es_CL
dc.subject	Persea americana	es_CL
dc.subject	Pollination	es_CL
dc.title	Avocado crops as a floral resource for native bees of Chile	es_CL
dc.type	Article	es_CL
dc.ucm.facultad	Facultad de Ciencias Básicas	es_CL
dc.ucm.indexacion	Scopus	es_CL
dc.ucm.indexacion	Isi	es_CL
dc.ucm.indexacion	Scielo	es_CL
dc.ucm.doi	doi.org/10.1186/s40693-020-00092-x	es_CL