Do flower-tripping bees enhance yields in peanut varieties grown in north Queensland?
K. R. Blanche A E , M. Hughes B , J. A. Ludwig C and S. A. Cunningham DA CSIRO Entomology, Tropical Forest Research Centre, GPO Box 780, Atherton, Qld 4883, Australia.
B Queensland Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries, Kairi Research Station, Qld 4882, Australia.
C CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Tropical Forest Research Centre, GPO Box 780, Atherton, Qld 4883, Australia.
D CSIRO Entomology, GPO Box 1700, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
E Corresponding author. Email: buglady@tpg.com.au
Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 46(11) 1529-1534 https://doi.org/10.1071/EA05190
Submitted: 5 July 2005 Accepted: 2 March 2006 Published: 9 October 2006
Abstract
It has been demonstrated that tripping of peanut flowers by large bees enhances pollination and improves peanut yields of some early commercial peanut varieties but this phenomenon has not been evaluated for recently developed peanut varieties. Our study aimed to establish whether bees provide this service for peanut varieties currently grown on the Atherton Tableland, north Queensland. To measure the impact of native and introduced bees occurring without assistance in crops, we set up 3 cage treatments (meshed to exclude large bees; partly meshed to allow bee access but take cage effects into account; and unmeshed) in each of 7 peanut crops. We also trapped bees in each crop for the entire flowering period. In a separate experiment, designed to ensure that suitable large bees were abundant nearby, we set up 6 replicates of the same 3 cage treatments in another peanut crop where 4 honeybee colonies were located. On a sunny day, during peak flowering, we monitored the number of honeybee visits to the peanut flowers in this crop between 0820 and 1730 hours. At harvest, we found that there was no effect of treatment on peanut yield (number of peanuts/g plant biomass). Thus, bees were not contributing to peanut pollination. This was reflected in the fact that no honeybees (or native bees) were observed visiting peanut flowers in the crop augmented with honeybees, and even though we caught 6 species of suitably sized bees in the other peanut crops, no bee species was common. It seems likely that selection for other desirable peanut traits has resulted in development of varieties that are no longer attractive to flower-tripping bees and that there is no advantage to be gained by north Queensland growers promoting bees in crops of these varieties.
Additional keywords: Apidae, Arachis hypogaea L., ecosystem service, Halictidae, Megachilidae.
Acknowledgments
We thank the 8 Atherton Tableland peanut growers who allowed us to use their crops for the experiment and Robert Bauer, CSIRO, for making insect traps and providing field and laboratory assistance. We also thank Ken Walker, of the Museum of Victoria, for identifying the bees. The study was part of the CSIRO Ecosystems Services Project, and was funded jointly by the Myer Foundation and the Co-operative Research Centre for Tropical Rainforest Ecology and Management.
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