• Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.46 no.3
• /
• pp.154-160
• /
• 2022

Background: The mango is one of the essential fruit trees for the economy of Thailand. Mango pollination relies primarily on insects. Other external forces, such as wind, are less efficient since pollen is sticky and aggregating. There is only one report from Thailand on the use of bees as mango pollinators. The study of the behavior and pollination efficiency of honey bees (Apis mellifera) and stingless bees (Tetragonula laeviceps species complex) was conducted in Nam Dokmai mango plantings in Phrao and Mae Taeng districts, Chiang Mai province, between February and March 2019. Results: Our results reveal that the honey bees commenced foraging earlier than the stingless bee. The number of flowers visited within 1 minute by honey bees was higher than that visited by stingless bees. The average numbers of honey bees and stingless bees that flew out of the hive per minute from 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. in the Phrao district were 4.21 ± 1.62 and 9.88 ± 7.63 bees/min, respectively, i.e., higher than those observed in Mae Taeng, which were 3.46 ± 1.13 and 1.23 ± 1.20 bees/min, respectively. The numbers of fruits per tree were significantly higher in the honey bee and stingless bee treatments (T1 and T2) than in the open pollination treatment (T3). The number of fruits between T1 and T2 treatments was not different. In the pollinator exclusion treatment (T4), no fruit was produced. Fruit size factors were not significantly different among T1, T2, and T3 treatments. Conclusions: Our results showed that insect pollination is crucial for mango production, especially with the Nam Dokmai variety in Northern Thailand. As pollinator exclusion treatment showed no fruit set, and pollinator treatment significantly increased the fruit sets compared to open access plots, a managed pollinator program would benefit the mango growers for better productivity. Both the honey bee and the stingless bee were shown to be effective as pollinators.

• Journal of Species Research
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.145-151
• /
• 2015

Morphological changes of flowers and insect visitors were observed to investigate pollinator of Caesalpinia decapetala. The flowers of C. decapetala are protandrous. Functionally, the flower is changed from male to female. As a male, pollen grain is released after anther dehisced while style is immature. After completed pollen grain release, the style starts to lengthen. It helps the stigma to easily touch the carpenter bee's thorax covered with pollen grain. At this time, flower functions as a female. The majority of taxa and individuals observed were Hymenoptera. The most frequent visitor was the Xylocopa appendiculata circumvolans, carpenter bee. Carpenter bees exhibited only typical pollinator behavior among flower visitors, with touching reproductive organs and seeking nectar at the same time. The pollination behavior is as follows. Soon after carpenter bees perceived guide mark, they foraged rightward and grasped style and stamens with legs and they inserted proboscis into standard petal to seek nectar. With this behavior, the pollen grains of the male flower transfer to the ventral thorax of the carpenter bee. As the carpenter bee moves to another female flower, the deposited pollen grains are delivered to the stigma.

• Journal of Apiculture
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.197-206
• /
• 2019

Pollination is an important ecosystem service involved in plant breeding and reproduction. This study analyzed the pollination network, which is the interaction between flowering plants and flower-visiting insects in the agricultural landscape. Flower-visiting insects from blossoms of flowering crops and surrounding plants were quantitatively surveyed during summer time. The pollinator species and abundance on each flowering plant were analyzed. A total of 2,381 interactions were indentified with 154 pollinators on 30 species of plants. Species richness of the pollinators was highest in Coleoptera (34%) followed by Hymenoptera (28%), Diptera (28%) and Lepidoptera (10%). Apis mellifera dominated (50%) followed by Calliphora vomitoria (5.3%) and Xylocopa appendiculata among pollinators, and remaining wild pollinators provided complex interaction. Among plants, Platycodon grandiflorum, Perilla frutescen and Fagopyrum esculentum harbored most pollinators and showed highest interaction frequencies. In the modular analysis, Apis mellifera was located as a hub-species which connect the interaction of others, implying most important role in the network. This results provide the basic information on the pollinator species associated with each crop and pollinator habitat in which plant provide the nectar, pollen and habitat resources for wild pollinators.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.376-384
• /
• 2016

A comparative petal micromorphology of 15 taxa of tribe Sorbarieae was carried out using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in order to evaluate their taxonomic and systematic implication. The characteristics of both adaxial and abaxial side of petal epidermal cells such as shape, arrangement, anticlinal wall and cuticular sculpture were described in detail. The Sorbarieae petal epidermal cells were identified as papillate or conical papillate (PCS) and rectangular-rugose tabular (TRS). Three types of petal micromorphology were found within the tribe based on the cell patterns of adaxial and abaxial side. Type I. PCS-TRS, Type II. PCS-PCS, Type III. TRS-TRS (adaxial-abaxial side). The petal epidermal cell types, anticlinal cell wall, and cuticular sculpture represent not only taxonomical importance for identification between or within the genera but also systematic implication. Moreover, this study provides a relation between petal epidermal cell pattern and insect pollinator (entomophily; melittophily) as an additional case.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.420-424
• /
• 2009

This experiment was executed to investigate the effect of the carpenter bee as a pollinator on the fruit set increment of sweet pepper in summer hydroponics in the alpine area of Gangwon province, Korea. Where the number of fruit sets were increasing during the treatment of pollination by the carpenter bee, total yields during the whole growing period were not different. The number of seeds per fruit in the treatment of the carpenter bee increased more than that in the control by 7.3 percent increment, but the percentage of blossom-end rot increased. As fruit weight range of SS size (below 120g) decreased and that of L size (from 181g to 210g) increased by the pollination treatment, so the percentage of standardized products for the export to Japan improved. Therefore this result was effective for the fruit production of high quality for the export to Japan and it will be necessary for further study on the method of reducing blossom-end rot to be done.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.759-771
• /
• 2016

We compared the fruit set and the quality of the 'Niitaka' pear (Pyrus pyrifolia Nakai) among flowers pollinated by two bee species (Apis mellifera and Bombus terrestris) and pollinated artificial. The artificial pollination rate was 1.3 to 1.9 times higher than the bee pollination rate. Moreover, the artificially pollinated flowers produced fruit that was 5 to 10% higher in weight, 2 to 3% larger in size, and had a higher fruit shape index (L/D) than fruit pollinated by the bees. On economic analysis, net profit from insect pollinator was 93.5 to 97.1% of net profit from artificial pollination. Therefore, artificial pollination is more efficient than bee pollination in 'Niitaka' pear. However, regarding fruit quality and net profit, these results suggest that bee pollination can be an good alternative to artificial pollination in 'Niitaka' pear.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
• /
• v.38 no.6
• /
• pp.531-536
• /
• 1993

Bulbosum method, which haploids are developed by pollinating with H. bulbosum have been productive to be recommended as an effective method for the production of genetically stable normal barley hybrids. The purpose of this study is to investigate several characters of H. bulbosum, seed set and embryo development rate pollinated with H. bulbosum in order to establish a method for improvement of embryo development and to find conditions favoring plant development from the embryos cultured in vitro. Three lines of H. bulbosum used as pollinators: GBC(2${\times}$), Spenish diploid(2${\times}$) and var. Jaaska (4${\times}$) were morphologically similar, having characteristically narrow leaves, narrow and long culms, long spikes and anthesis duration in comparison with H. vulgare. H. bulbosum, var. Jaaska(4${\times}$) on being pollinated to barley cultivars, increased embryo formation by 8% and plant development in vitro by three times compared to the other diploid lines. the plants developed were not normal barley hybrids but had some H. bulbosum chromosomes uneliminated, indicating that the line was unstable as a pollinator to induce barley haploids.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
• /
• v.42 no.3
• /
• pp.159-165
• /
• 2015

The cultivation area and use of genetically modified (GM) crops have been increased continuously over the world and concerns about the potential risks of GM crops are also increasing. One of the major concern in risk assessment is the possible development of hybrids through interspecific and intergeneric crosses with related species. This study was conducted to investigate the pollinator have an influence on insect-mediated gene transfer from GM soybeans. Hybrid was induced from GM soybeans by honeybee and western flower thrips, and non-GM soybeans were used as pollen receptor. The analysis for gene-flow was conducted by herbicide selection, immunostrip test, and PCR analysis. In the result of the analysis, three hybrids were detected on the distance 15, 75, 105 cm from pollen source in western flower thrips treatment. In honeybee treatment, one hybrid was detected in the farthest distance (300 cm). These results suggested honeybee and western flower thrips have a possibility they can transfer the introduced gene from GM soybeans to non-GM soybeans.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.46 no.1
• /
• pp.62-75
• /
• 2022

Background: Pollinators help plants to reproduce and support economically valuable food for humans and entire ecosystems. However, declines of pollinators along with population growth and increasing agricultural activities hamper this mutual interaction. Nectar and pollen are the major reward for pollinators and flower morphology and volatiles mediate the specialized plant-pollinator interactions. Limited information is available on the volatile profiles attractive to honey bees and bumblebees. In this study we analyzed the volatile organic compounds of the flowers of 9 different plant species that are predominantly visited by honey bees and bumblebees. The chemical compositions of the volatiles were determined using a head space gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method, designed to understand the plant-pollinator chemical interaction. Results: Results showed the monoterpene 1,3,6-octatriene, 3,7-dimethyl-, (E) (E-𝞫-ocimene) was the dominating compound in most flowers analyzed, e.g., in proportion of 60.3% in Lonicera japonica, 48.8% in Diospyros lotus, 38.4% Amorpha fruticosa and 23.7% in Robinia pseudoacacia. Ailanthus altissima exhibited other monoterpenes such as 3,7-dimethyl-1,6-octadien-3-ol (𝞫-linalool) (39.1%) and (5E)-3,5-dimethylocta-1,5,7-trien-3-ol (hotrienol) (32.1%) as predominant compounds. Nitrogen containing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were occurring principally in Corydalis speciosa; 1H-pyrrole, 2,3-dimethyl- (50.0%) and pyrimidine, 2-methyl- (40.2%), and in Diospyros kaki; 1-triazene, 3,3-dimethyl-1-phenyl (40.5%). Ligustrum obtusifolium flower scent contains isopropoxycarbamic acid, ethyl ester (21.1%) and n-octane (13.4%) as major compounds. In Castanea crenata the preeminent compound is 1-phenylethanone (acetophenone) (46.7%). Conclusions: Olfactory cues are important for pollinators to locate their floral resources. Based on our results we conclude monoterpenes might be used as major chemical mediators attractive to both honey bees and bumblebees to their host flowers. However, the mode of action of these chemicals and possible synergistic effects for olfaction need further investigation.

• Journal of Plant Biology
• /
• v.37 no.3
• /
• pp.277-284
• /
• 1994

I investigated levels of genetic diversity, population genetic structure, and gene flow in Hostacapitata, a herbaceous perennial native to South Korea and southwestern Japan. Starch gel electrophoresis was conducted on leaves collected from 310 plants in 19 Korean populations. Twenty-two of 25 putative loci examined were polymorphic in at least one populatin and the mean number of alleles per locus was 1.65. In addition, mean expected heterozygosity within populations (Hep=0.153) was higher than average values for species with similar life history traits. Significant differences in allele frequency were detected between populations at all loci (P<0.01), and slightly over 30% of the genetic variation was found among populatins (GST=0.308). Indirect estimates of the number of migrants per generation (Nm) (0.506, calculated from GST; 0.852, calculated from the mean frequency of ten private alleles) indicate that gene flow is restricted among the isolated Korean populations of H. capitata. Factors contributing to the high levels of genetic differentiation among populations of H. capitata include small and discrete populations, human disturbance, and low frequencies of pollinator foraging behavior.