Importance of insects in watermelon production (Citrullus lanatus Thunb.) - Cucurbitaceae
The present experiment was carried out at Faculdade de Agronomia Dr. Francisco Maeda, Brazil to study the frequency, the type (nectar and/or pollen) of collection, the behaviour of insects on watermelon flowers (Citrullus lanatus) and its effect on quantitative and qualitative fruit production. The...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Formato: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2008 |
| País: | Brasil |
| Recursos: | Universidade Estadual de Maringá (UEM) |
| Repositorio: | Acta Scientiarum. Agronomy (Online) |
| Idioma: | portugués |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:periodicos.uem.br/ojs:article/4289 |
| Acesso em linha: | http://www.periodicos.uem.br/ojs/index.php/ActaSciAgron/article/view/4289 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palavra-chave: | melancia polinização abelhas insetos 5.01.00.00-9 Agronomia |
| Resumo: | The present experiment was carried out at Faculdade de Agronomia Dr. Francisco Maeda, Brazil to study the frequency, the type (nectar and/or pollen) of collection, the behaviour of insects on watermelon flowers (Citrullus lanatus) and its effect on quantitative and qualitative fruit production. The most frequent insects on watermelon flowers were ants - Formicidae (37.2%), followed by stingless bees Melipona sp. (32.0%) and Trigona sp. (9.0%), flies - Diptera (9.0%), beetles - Coleoptera (7.7%) and butterflies - Lepidoptera (5.1%). However, the stingless bees Melipona sp. were 53.2% of the visitors to watermelon male flowers. Africanized honey bees were not observed in watermelon flowers. After 4 p.m. no insect was observed in the flowers. Flowers not visited by insects did not produce fruit, in the covered area. It was observed that 64.3% of the fruits presented irregular spherical shape. Dryness and pollinators absence may explain these data, once no fruit production occurred without insect visits. |
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