Abstract
This study aimed to evaluate the insect visitors in the male and female flowers of the pumpkin, Cucurbita mixta, in Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo State, Brazil. The experiment was conducted in August, 2004. The insects in the flowers were counted from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., for 10 minutes, every hour, with three replications and in three different days. It was observed that the insect which most frequently visited the flowers was the Africanized honey bee, Apis mellifera. That bee visited flowers until 1:00 p.m. and preferred to collect nectar from the male flowers (68.4%), when compared to pollen from the male flowers (18.6%) and nectar from the female flowers (13.0%). The frequency of those bees in the flowers decreased in elapsing of the day. The relationship between male and female flowers was 3.2:1.
Highlights
A agricultura vem passando, nas últimas décadas, por uma revolução tecnológica intensa visando ao aumento na produtividade das culturas
Entretanto, não precisa ser adotada se Maringá, v. 28, n. 4, p. 563-568, Oct./Dec., 2006 houver agentes polinizadores visitando as flores, como é o caso do maracujá, cujas abelhas são da espécie Xylocopa (Malerbo-Souza, 1996)
Cultivada nas condições experimentais deste trabalho, pôde-se concluir que as flores dessa cultura ficaram abertas até 13h00 e que a abelha africanizada (A. mellifera) foi o inseto mais freqüente observado nas flores, preferindo coletar néctar nas flores masculinas e visitá-las das 8h00 até 13h00
Summary
A agricultura vem passando, nas últimas décadas, por uma revolução tecnológica intensa visando ao aumento na produtividade das culturas. No Brasil, Amaral (1970) concluiu que as abelhas Trigona spp (irapuás) e A. mellifera (africanizadas) foram as mais importantes polinizadoras, sendo as Trigona observadas em números maiores na cultura de C. maxima.
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