Choice of food resource by bees and ants (Hymenoptera: Apoidea, Formicidae) on coconut tree inflorescences (Cocos nucifera, Arecaceae)

Summary

Coconut trees are mostly anemophilous; however, because bees and ants forage on coconut tree inflorescences for floral food, entomophilous pollination can also occur. The aim of this study was to determine the food resource preference of bees and ants while they collect pollen, nectar and, for ants, occasionally prey on coconut tree inflorescences, as well as to evaluate their impact on self-pollination. The number of ant visits to first female and then male flowers is significantly higher than that of bees. For Apis mellifera (L.) and Pseudomyrmex gracilis (Fabricius) 14% of the sequences were favorable to direct self-pollination. The probability of visits for all of the sequences was similar for both bees and ants and there was no difference in resource choice. For these reasons, neither can be considered a more effective pollinator of the coconut tree.

Résumé

La pollinisation du cocotier est principalement anémophile. Toutefois, une part de pollinisation entomophile résulte aussi du fait que les abeilles et les fourmis butinent ses inflorescences. Le but de cette étude est de déterminer les préférences alimentaires des abeilles et des fourmis sur les inflorescences, lorsqu’elles butinent du pollen, du nectar et, occasionnellement pour les fourmis, des proies. Il s’agit aussi d’évaluer leur rôle dans l’auto-pollinisation. Le nombre de fourmis qui butinent d’abord les fleurs femelles puis les mâles est significativement plus grand que dans le cas des abeilles. Pour Apis mellifera (L.) et Pseudomyrmex gracilis (Fabricius), 14% des séquences comportementales ont été favorables à l’auto-pollinisation. La probabilité de visites lors de toutes les séquences a été identique pour les abeilles et les fourmis et il n’y a donc pas eu de différences dans les choix de ressources. Pour ces raisons, ces deux groupes de pollinisateurs peuvent être considérés comme d’efficacité équivalente.

Keywords:

• pollination
• entomophily
• anemophily
• Apis mellifera
• Pseudomyrmex gracilis

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to sincerely thank Josenaldo Souza Cruz, Marailton Souza, José Raimundo Maia, José Crispim and other members of the Myrmecological Laboratory for their valuable help in the field, Ivan Cardoso for his assistance in identifying the ant species, as well as Marie-Claire Cammaerts for her detailed comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. We are also in debt to Andrea Y Dejean for her very careful revision of the final version of the English manuscript. ESC gratefully acknowledges CAPES for her Master Scholarship and JHCD gratefully acknowledges his research grant by CNPq.