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Bee size increases pollen deposition in Cucurbita maxima (Cucurbitaceae) crops

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Abstract

The study of the performance of animal pollinators has expanded in recent decades mainly due to the concern on crop productivity. Among insects, bees are the main pollinators of most Angiosperm species. The aim of this paper was to study the effect of bee body size on the pollination of Cucurbita maxima Duch. (Cucurbitaceae) var. zapallito crops. We quantified stigmatic pollen deposition by single visits of bee species with different body sizes. Bee species were classified into four categories accordingly to their intertegular distance: Very small (≤ 1.7 mm), Small (1.71 mm < 2.7 mm), Medium (2.71 mm < 3.7 mm) and Large (> 3.71 mm). Fifteen bee species belonging to the Apidae and Halictidae families were observed depositing pollen on the stigmas of C. maxima. The number of pollen grains deposited and the probability of pollen deposition per visit increased significantly with body size. Large bees Xylocopa augusti and Bombus pauloensis were the most efficient species at depositing pollen on stigmas followed by medium-sized bees Eucera fervens and Apis mellifera. The results show that several wild bee species play an important role in the pollination of C. maxima crops. This research provides baseline data for the design of pollination studies to develop strategies to optimize pollination of this crop.

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Data availability

The datasets of this study are available from the corresponding author on request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Nydia Vitale and Dr. Estravis Barcala M.C., and anonymous reviewers for valuable comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this manuscript. We are also grateful to all farmers for allowing us to conduct this study in their fields. Authors PJR, VA, LA, LJA and ML are affiliated to Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. División Entomología, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo (FCNyM), Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP), Laboratorios Anexo Museo de La Plata, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Pablo J. Ramello, Valentín Almada, Leopoldo J. Alvarez & Mariano Lucia

  2. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), La Plata, Argentina

    Pablo J. Ramello, Valentín Almada, Leopoldo J. Alvarez & Mariano Lucia

  3. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (IMBIV), Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Córdoba, Argentina

    Lorena Ashworth

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  1. Pablo J. Ramello
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  2. Valentín Almada
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  4. Leopoldo J. Alvarez
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  5. Mariano Lucia
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Contributions

PJR and LA conceived the ideas and designed methodology of the research. PJR collected the data. ML, LJA and PJR identified specimens of bees. PJR and VA analyzed data and conducted statistical analyses. All authors wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Pablo J. Ramello.

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Communicated by Mathieu Lihoreau.

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Ramello, P.J., Almada, V., Ashworth, L. et al. Bee size increases pollen deposition in Cucurbita maxima (Cucurbitaceae) crops. Apidologie 55, 23 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-024-01065-9

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