THE BUZZ ABOUT BEES - University of Guelph Buzz A… · THE BUZZ ABOUT BEES L. Shipp1,P.N. Silva2,...

THE BUZZ ABOUT BEES

L. Shipp1, P.N. Silva2, P. Kevan3,V.L. Imperatriz Fonseca2 and M. Hrncir4

1Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2Universidade de São Paulo and 3University of Guelph

and 4Universidade Federal Rural do Semiárido

••• Agriculture andAgri-Food Canada

Agriculture etAgroalimentaire Canada Canada

Greenhouse Tomato Pollination

A. Morse, 2009. M.Sc. Thesis

Buzz Pollination by Bombus impatiens

A. Morse

Objectives

• Determine the influence of the number of bee visits and

duration on fruit quality

• Determine the effect of vibration (buzz) physical

characteristics (frequency and amplitude) on tomato fruit

quality

• Determine if B. impatiens is capable of evaluating pollen

availability during buzz pollination

• Determine if the buzz pollination physical characteristics

are different for different plant species

Influence of bee visits on fruit quality

Fruit weight resulting from non visited flowers (control – C), flowers that received one visit (1V), two visits (2V), three visits (3V), four visits (4V) and free visitation for eight hours (IV) and for one visit to flowers with silicon on their surface (control – C2) and with the anther cone pore blocked with silicon (PF). Dashed line: mean. Solid line: median.

Seed number resulting from non visited flowers (control – C), flowers that received one visit (1V), two visits (2V), three visits (3V), four visits (4V) and free visitation for eight hours (IV) and for one visit to flowers with silicon on their surface (control – C2) and with the anther cone pore blocked with silicon (PF).

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1V 2V 3V 4V IV C2 PF C 1V 2V 3V 4V IV C2 PF

Duration of the first, second, third and fourth visits of Bombus impatiens to

tomato flowers. Same letters (a–b) indicate that those groups were statistically

not separated (Friedman: p>0.05). Dashed line: mean. Solid line: median.

• Mean number of pollen grains per tomato flower was 96,561 ± 28,220.

• After one visit, 58% of the pollen was removed.

• After four visits, 68% of the pollen was removed.

Laser doppler vibrometer was used to determine

the vibration characteristics of buzz pollination

From vibration recording (graphs below) the fundamental

(main) frequency and velocity amplitudes of vibration and the

mean thoracic displacement of the bees will be calculated.

34.300Time seconds

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Frequency and amplitude vs number

of flower visits

No correlation between frequency and amplitude of forager’s vibrations

and thorax size.

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Buzz pollination and eggplant

Mean number of pollen grains per eggplant flower was 327,990 ± 95,123.

After first visit, 67% of the pollen was removed.

Again, there was no correlation between thorax weight of the forager,

vibration physical characteristics and amount of pollen left on the flower.

Frequency and amplitude of

B. impatiens on tomato and eggplant

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Tomato Eggplant Tomato Eggplant

B. impatiens only needs to visit the tomato flower once for adequate pollination and fruit quality.

B. impatiens is capable of detecting the amount of pollen available in the flower while visiting it. However, the bees do not change vibration’s physical characteristics, but spend less time on the flowers with less pollen.

Size of the bee does not affect the vibration’s physical characteristics.

Buzz pollination (frequency and amplitude) does vary by plant species.

Conclusions

Consultation and Technical Support Shalin Khosla Yun Zhang Britney Gerhardt

Acknowledgements

Agriculture and Agriculture et

Agri-Food Canada Agroalimentaire Canada

CAPES Funding Agency, Brasil

UNIVERSITYW<GUELPH