Floral visitors of European pear trees ‘Clapp’s Favourite’ in southern Brazil

Low fecundation and fructification have been linked to several physiological processes caused by from lack of climate adaptation, including pollination problems, often resulting from the lack of coincidence of flowering between compatible gametophytes.
A study aimed at the quantification of individuals and foraging time of each species was not carried out.
This essay is a brief description of floral visitors associated with the European ‘Clapp’s Favourite’ pear trees cultivated in São Francisco de Paula and preliminary considerations about the behaviours of these insects.
Floral visitors were registered through images and videos from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm, mainly from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm, when they had the maximum activity and on days with favourable environmental conditions, characterized by the absence of rainfall and strong winds.
To assess the diversity of visiting entomofauna in the flowers, the adult insects visualized during full flowering were captured and stored in 70% alcohol for later assembly and identification.
Native bees, mainly Trigona spinipes and Tetragonisca angustula fiebrigi, are the predominant potential pollinating floral visitors in the primary flowering of European ‘Clapp’s Favourite’ pear trees.
These species of stingless bees collected pollen grains and fed on nectar, also coming into contact with floral stigmas, a preponderant condition for pollination.

I International Symposium on Reproductive Biology of Fruit Tree Species

B. de Castro, G.A.B. Marodin, P.H.G. Ferreira

self-incompatibility, reproductive biology, bloom

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2022.1342.32