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1 April 2006 Pollination of Greenhouse Tomatoes by the Australian Bluebanded Bee Amegilla (Zonamegilla) holmesi (Hymenoptera: Apidae)
M. C. Bell, R. N. Spooner-hart, A. M. Haigh
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Abstract

The pollination effectiveness of bluebanded bees of the species Amegilla (Zonamegilla) holmesi Rayment (Hymenoptera: Apidae) was evaluated in tomato plants, Lycopersicon esculentum Miller (Solanaceae), cultivated in two greenhouse chambers. Bluebanded bee pollination was compared with mechanical pollination and no supplementary pollination. Pollination effectiveness was compared between treatments by using the percentage of fruit set, fruit weight, fruit diameter, fruit roundness, and the number of seeds per fruit. Both the bluebanded bee pollination and the mechanical pollination treatments significantly increased fruit set, individual fruit weight, and diameter compared with the control treatment. Fruit were also significantly rounder and contained significantly more seeds. Positive correlations were found for fruit weight versus seed number, maximum diameter versus seed number and minimum diameter versus seed number. We conclude that the use of A. holmesi for pollinating greenhouse tomatoes in Australia may be an effective alternative to the use of mechanical pollination.

M. C. Bell, R. N. Spooner-hart, and A. M. Haigh "Pollination of Greenhouse Tomatoes by the Australian Bluebanded Bee Amegilla (Zonamegilla) holmesi (Hymenoptera: Apidae)," Journal of Economic Entomology 99(2), 437-442, (1 April 2006). https://doi.org/10.1603/0022-0493-99.2.437
Received: 28 March 2005; Accepted: 1 November 2005; Published: 1 April 2006
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KEYWORDS
Amegilla
bluebanded bee
Lycopersicon
pollination
tomato
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