Polinización por abejas (Apis Mellifera) e incidencia en cultivo de Mango Tommy (Mangifera Indica)

Abstract

ABSTRACT

For approximately 60 million years, the bees have inhabited the earth and to this day they have survived all the series of events without the help of man. During this period of time bees have been fundamental for the maintenance and development of biodiversity. Pollination in crops is an ecosystem service and a productive practice widely used by farmers. Pollination by honey bees Apis melífera is a service resulting from the mutualistic interaction between plants that need to mobilize their pollen to co-specific stigmas, using the insect as a vector of pollen during the flowering period of crops. Thus, the plant-pollinator interaction fundamentally involves aspects of the reproductive system of plant flowers and elements of both survival and reproduction. According to the entomologists dedicated to the study of bees (Apis mellifera), they are the insects that have the highest percentage of pollination in crops, because their colonies have a large number of specimens per area units. of which more than 50% go out to collect the food which is constituted by pollen and the nectar that the flowers offer; This collection activity is called "pecoreo". The bee makes an average of 15 pecoreo trips during the day and on each trip visits about 40 flowers, which is equivalent to approximately 15,000,000 flowers visited by a colony in one day. Studies indicate that a bee can pecore on average up to a distance of 1,500 meters of radius (Vasquez, 1995), this distance can be affected by environmental and ecological factors such as:

a) Competition with other insect species. b) Strong and extreme temperature changes. c) Solar radiation d) Environmental pollution e) The distance traveled in search of food f) Fumigation of crops with agrochemicals.

Pollination not only increases the amount of fruit, that is, crop yield, but also improves its quality represented in a physical conformation and qualities such as better taste, quality and production of sugars represented in degrees brix (° Brix) It is for this reason that Apis mellifera has been used in directed pollination programs in different European countries which have calculated their productive value between 25 to 50 times higher than the production of pollen and honey