African endemic stingless bees as an efficient alternative pollinator to honey bees in greenhouse cucumber (<i>Cucumis sativus</i> L)

The current honey bee decline necessitates the use of alternative native pollinators to ensure global food security. Here, we compared the pollination behaviour and efficiency of the African honey bee (<i>Apis mellifera</i>) and six African endemic Meliponini (<i>Meliponula bocandei, Dactylurina schmidti, Meliponula lendliana, Hypotrigona gribodoi, Meliponula ferruginea</i> and <i>Meliponula togoensis</i>) in a greenhouse with the non-parthenocarpic cucumber variety <i>Super Marketer</i>. Honey bees and <i>D. schmidti</i> started foraging on introduction in the greenhouse, while <i>M. lendliana</i> and <i>M. togoensis</i> showed the longest delay. In most species, foragers collected nectar and pollen, excepting <i>M. bocandei</i> that specialized in nectar collection, and <i>H. gribodoi</i> and <i>M. togoensis,</i> specialized in pollen collection. African honey bees visited flowers the shortest, while <i>H. gribodoi</i> and <i>D. schmidti</i> had a 2-fold probing time, on average. Most stingless bees species had a lower hive activity with fewer foragers encountered per hour than for honey bees, except <i>D. schmidti</i>. <i>M. bocandei, M. ferruginea</i>, <i>A. mellifera scutellata</i> and <i>H. gribodoi,</i> yielded a seed germination percentage of around 90%. <i>M. lendliana</i>, <i>M. togoensis</i> and <i>D. schmidti</i> yielded a much lower seed germination percentage around 30%, which indicates that the quality of pollination was remarkably lower by using these three species. The highest sugar content was recorded in fruits from flowers pollinated by <i>M. bocandei,</i> African honey bees<i>, D. schimdti</i> or <i>M. togoensis</i> with the same solid content as the gold standard method, i.e., hand cross-pollination. We found that <i>M. bocandei</i> was the most efficient cucumber pollinator of all species tested: because pollination by this species yielded the largest and heaviest fruits and the highest seed numbers.

当前全球蜜蜂种群衰退的现状，使得我们必须依托替代型本土传粉者以保障全球粮食安全。本研究在温室环境中，对比了非洲蜜蜂（Apis mellifera）与六种非洲本土无刺蜂族（Meliponini）物种——博坎德无刺蜂（Meliponula bocandei）、施密特无刺蜂（Dactylurina schmidti）、伦德莱无刺蜂（Meliponula lendliana）、格氏下颊无刺蜂（Hypotrigona gribodoi）、锈色无刺蜂（Meliponula ferruginea）及多哥无刺蜂（Meliponula togoensis），针对非单性结实型黄瓜品种"Super Marketer"的传粉行为与传粉效率开展对比实验。非洲蜜蜂与施密特无刺蜂在被引入温室后即刻启动觅食活动，而伦德莱无刺蜂与多哥无刺蜂则展现出最长的觅食延迟时长。多数受试物种的采集蜂会同时采集花蜜与花粉，唯有博坎德无刺蜂特化采集花蜜，格氏下颊无刺蜂与多哥无刺蜂则特化采集花粉。非洲蜜蜂的单次访花时长最短，格氏下颊无刺蜂与施密特无刺蜂的平均探花时长则为前者的两倍。除施密特无刺蜂外，多数无刺蜂物种的蜂巢活动强度更低，每小时观测到的采集蜂数量也少于非洲蜜蜂。博坎德无刺蜂、锈色无刺蜂、东非蜜蜂（Apis mellifera scutellata）与格氏下颊无刺蜂所结果实的种子萌发率约为90%。伦德莱无刺蜂、多哥无刺蜂与施密特无刺蜂的种子萌发率仅约30%，表明利用这三个物种进行传粉时，传粉质量显著偏低。由博坎德无刺蜂、非洲蜜蜂、施密特无刺蜂或多哥无刺蜂授粉的果实，其含糖量最高，且可溶性固形物含量与人工异花授粉这一金标准方法一致。本研究发现，在所有受试物种中，博坎德无刺蜂是最为高效的黄瓜传粉者：经该物种授粉的果实个头最大、重量最高，且种子数量最多。

搜集汇总

背景与挑战

背景概述

该数据集基于一项研究，比较了非洲蜜蜂和六种非洲本地无刺蜜蜂在温室黄瓜传粉中的行为和效率，旨在应对全球蜜蜂数量下降问题。研究发现，不同蜜蜂物种在传粉行为、种子发芽率和果实质量上存在显著差异，其中M. bocandei被确定为最有效的传粉者，能产生最大、最重的果实和最高种子数。数据集包含补充数据文件，分类涉及进化生物学、环境科学等领域，关键词包括保护、传粉和作物产量。