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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).
300 350
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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
34.200
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.1J rOve rl ay1.J rOve rl ay.lJr Overlay.iJr, a
:Qiiliij!jij ..:1
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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3001V 4V
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-r
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300
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---
9 I I200 I I
+150
1V 4V
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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400 280
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e----- 240
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300 •
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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
