Comportamento forrageiro de Apis mellifera L. 1758 em panículas da nogueira macadâmia (Macadamia integrifolia Maiden & Betche)

Abstract

This research was carried out in Tietê, SP , Brazil (47º 43' W and 23 S) Aiming to study the foraging behavior of Apis mellifera L. 1758 in visiting the internal and external parts of the canopy of macadamia (Macadamia integrifolia Maiden & Betche), cultivar IAC 4-12B, The number of visits that the bees made to the internal and external parts of the trees canopy was recorded in five trees of eight years of age and propagated by grafting techniques, and chosen at random. Bee visits to both internal and external parts of the canopy were recorded at every fifteen minutes from 8:00 to 16:00h, during six days. Pollen and nectar collection were recorded for five minutes at every hour, from 8:00 AM to 17:00 PM, during seven days. The results showed that honeybees foraged in macadamia for both pollen and nectar, but they prefer nectar. The mean number of pollen and nectar foragers was 10 and 2, respectively. The results also showed that the greatest number of visits was made to flowers of the external part of the canopy, differing statistically from those found in the internal part of the canopy, with means of 18.6 and 14.6, respectively.