Choice of food resource by bees and ants (Hymenoptera: Apoidea,Formicidae) on coconut tree inflorescences (Cocos nucifera,Arecaceae) |
| |
| Authors: | Eltamara Souza da Conceição José Inácio Lacerda Moura Antonio de Oliveira Costa-Neto |
| |
| Institution: | 1. Universidade do Estado da Bahia, Departamento de Ciências Exatas e da Terra, Rod. Alagoinhas-Salvador, Km 03, C.P. 59, 48.040-210, Alagoinhas, Bahia, Brazil;2. Centro de Pesquisas do Cacau, Esta??o Experimental Lemos Maia, Una, Bahia, Brazil;3. Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brazil |
| |
| Abstract: | Coconut trees are mostly anemophilous; however, because bees and ants forage on coconut tree inflorescences for floral food, entomophilous pollination can also occur. The aim of this study was to determine the food resource preference of bees and ants while they collect pollen, nectar and, for ants, occasionally prey on coconut tree inflorescences, as well as to evaluate their impact on self-pollination. The number of ant visits to first female and then male flowers is significantly higher than that of bees. For Apis mellifera (L.) and Pseudomyrmex gracilis (Fabricius) 14% of the sequences were favorable to direct self-pollination. The probability of visits for all of the sequences was similar for both bees and ants and there was no difference in resource choice. For these reasons, neither can be considered a more effective pollinator of the coconut tree. |
| |
| Keywords: | pollination entomophily anemophily Apis mellifera Pseudomyrmex gracilis |
|
|
