Pollination effectiveness of European honeybee, Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae), in an Oriental persimmon, Diospyro
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER
Pollination effectiveness of European honeybee, Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae), in an Oriental persimmon, Diospyros kaki (Ericales: Ebenaceae), orchard Shoko Nakamura1 · Shunsuke Yamamoto2 · Nobuo Sawamura2 · Aoi Nikkeshi3 · Shigeki Kishi4 · Tsunashi Kamo3 Received: 22 April 2020 / Accepted: 20 August 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Most common cultivars of Oriental (or Japanese) persimmon, Diospyros kaki Thunb. (Ericales: Ebenaceae), set mostly female flowers and require pollen from male flowers of other cultivars for pollination. Growers often introduce the European honeybee, Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae), into their orchards to promote pollination. Here, we investigated the pollination effectiveness of A. mellifera for D. kaki ‘Saijo,’ by monitoring flower visitors, analyzing pollen grains on bees’ body surfaces, and comparing the number of mature seeds in fruits among years with different pollinator availabilities. Apis mellifera and the bumblebee Bombus ardens ardens Smith (Hymenoptera: Apidae) were the major visitors for 3 years, although their dominance varied among years. The number of mature seeds was positively correlated with the number of B. ardens a rdens visiting D. kaki flowers, but not with that of A. mellifera. Apis mellifera might be less efficient because visitors to female flowers carried significantly fewer pollen grains on their body surfaces than those of B. ardens a rdens. Analysis of pollen loads of honeybees captured at their nest entrance suggested their preference for red clover, Trifolium pratense L. (Fabales: Fabaceae), and Toxicodendron spp. (Sapindales: Anacardiaceae), over D. kaki as a pollen source in our study site. The effectiveness of A. mellifera on D. kaki pollination should be carefully evaluated considering the effects of coexisting floral and pollinator species. Keywords Apis mellifera · Bombus ardens ardens · Diospyros kaki · Flower visitation · Pollen · Trifolium pratense
Introduction
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s13355-020-00696-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Tsunashi Kamo [email protected] 1
Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Forest Research and Management Organization, 1 Matsunosato, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305‑8687, Japan
2
Shimane Agricultural Technology Center, 2440 Ashiwata, Izumo, Shimane 693‑0035, Japan
3
Institute for Agro‑Environmental Sciences, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, 3‑1‑3 Kannondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305‑8604, Japan
4
Research Center for Agricultural Information Technology, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Kintetsu Kasumigaseki Building, 3‑5‑1 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda‑ku, Tokyo 100‑0013, Japan
The Oriental (or Japanese) persimmon, Diospyros kaki Thunb. (Ericales: Ebenaceae), is a familiar fruit in eastern Asia. This species is generally diclinous, but most typical cultivars set mostly female flowers (Yonemori et al. 1992) an
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