Polinizadores potenciais de Lycopersicon esculentum mill. (Solanaceae) em áreas de cultivo aberto

Abstract

In open cultivated areas, the increased agricultural production can be achieved by the presence of natural pollinators. In this study, to identify potential pollinators of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) the bee community and their visiting behavior on the flowers were evaluated. For this, three areas of commercial cultivation of tomatoes situated in Araguari (MG) and Estrela do Sul (MG) were sampled between March and November 2012. We collected 185 bees belonging to 13 species. Exomalopsis analis was the most abundant species followed by Apis mellifera and Paratrigona lineata. Ten species performed the buzz pollination, an important behavior for tomato pollination. Of these, we highlight E. analis and Melipona quinquefasciata for being the most abundant. Apis mellifera and P. lineata could also be acting as pollinators, because they transported pollen between flowers. However, P. lineata also acted as a pollen robber, a characteristic that prevents it from being used for tomato pollination. We also conducted a controlled pollination experiment (autopollination and pollination by E. analis) to evaluate the effect of bee s visitation in the physical quality of formed fruits. The fruit set in the pollination treatment by E. analis was a higher. The fruit mass, roundness and sugar concentration did not differ significantly among treatments. However, the number of seeds was higher in fruits visited by bees and presented a positive correlation with fruit weight. Thus, it appears that E. analis is the main pollinator of tomatoes in open field. However, it is still needed to understand more their biology and nesting habits in order to use it efficiently in crop pollination programs.