Fenologia reprodutiva, biologia floral e abelhas visitantes em Solanum lycocarpum A. St. Hil. (Solanaceae)

Abstract

A key factor in the production of a large portion of vegetables is pollination, which consists in the transfer of pollen to the stigma when it is receptive. The aim of this work was to describe the floral biology, reproductive phenology of Solanum lycocarpum, analyze the foraging behavior of visiting bees to identify effective pollinators of the species and determine the influence of abiotic factors in their activities. For that 15 individuals of S. lycocarpum were monitored throughout a year. The visiting bees were directly collected in the flowers, during 15 minutes of every hour, while in the remaining 45 minutes we evaluated the behavior of the different species of bees. Faunistic analyses were developed to define the classes of abundance, frequency, constancy and dominance of visiting bees. Correlation tests were performed to verify if the foraging activities of bees were correlated with the abiotic factors. Phenological observations were carried out between July 2012 and July 2013, registering the presence of the phenophases of flowering and fructification. The phenology of flowering and fruiting plants was characterized by the period that comprises the production of flower buds, flowering and fruit production until maturation. The results showed that the long period that individuals of S. lycocarpum remain producing flowers may have contributed to the maintenance of thier pollinators. For each inflorescence observed (n=10) were produced precisely 13 buttons on an average time of 28.6 ±2.7 days, with an average of 1.055 ± 0.136 open flowers per day. It took 119.7±6.7 days for the full ripening of fruits, considering from the beginning of their development. The bee species classified as predominant effectively pollinated flowers of S. lycocarpum by sternotribic pollination. The structures of flowers (corolla and anthers) attracted independently or jointly, the bees. It was also noted that the morphology of the flowers is appropriate with the body size of most species of visiting bees and that environmental factors had little influence on the foraging activities of bees, i.e. the frequency of foraging of these organisms was influenced mainly by the availability and abundance of pollen in the Flowers.