The bumblebee Bombus ardens ardens (Hymenoptera: Apidae) visits white clover in orchards before Oriental persimmon blooms |
| |
Authors: | Aoi Nikkeshi Hiromitsu Inoue Tomonori Arai Shigeki Kishi Tsunashi Kamo |
| |
Institution: | 1. Division of Biodiversity, Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO), Ibaraki, Japan;2. Division of Grape and Persimmon Research, Institute of Fruit Tree and Tea Science, NARO, Hiroshima, Japan;3. Agricultural AI Research Office, Research Center for Agricultural Information Technology, NARO, Tokyo, Japan |
| |
Abstract: | Flowers on the ground of orchards can provide substantial resources for wild pollinators of orchard trees. Few studies, however, have examined the relative importance of groundcover flowers to orchard pollination by analyzing pollen on the body surface of pollinators. Oriental persimmon trees bloom within the longer blooming period of white clover, which is occasionally found as a flowering plant on the ground of persimmon orchards in Japan. The present study compared the insect species assemblage collected on persimmon flowers with that on clover. Before persimmon bloomed, Bombus ardens ardens and Apis cerana japonica were the major visitors of clover flowers. Once persimmon bloomed, the former was the most abundant bee that visited persimmon flowers over the flowering period. Apis mellifera was captured only on clover flowers. We found numerous clover pollen grains on the body surface of bumblebees captured on persimmon flowers, but far fewer persimmon pollen grains on bees that visited clover. These findings show that B. ardens ardens utilized the clover flowers under the orchards before persimmon bloomed. |
| |
Keywords: | Diospyros kaki floor vegetation groundcover plants pollen Trifolium repens |
|
|