Pollination efficacy of stingless bees, Tetragonula pagdeni Schwarz (Apidae: Meliponini), on greenhouse tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum Linnaeus)

Abstract

The stingless bee Tetragonula pagdeni is distributed over a vast Southeast Asian territory. This species is commonly used as a commercial insect pollinator. Pollination efficacy of T. pagdeni was investigated with tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) cultivated in greenhouse environments. In the first experiment, the number of fruit sets, number of seeds, fresh weight, and fruit height were quantified in the greenhouse with stingless bees, without stingless bees, and with pollination by mechanical vibration by hand. In the second experiment, the treatments were conducted with tomatoes of indeterminate growth in the greenhouse with and without stingless bees to prevent variation among the different tomato plants. The obtained results showed that a greenhouse with stingless bees presented 85 ± 4.24 fruits per 100 flowers, more than a greenhouse with mechanical vibration (79.5 ± 2.12 fruits per 100 flowers) or a greenhouse without stingless bees (15 ± 0.00 fruits per 100 flowers). In addition, fruit produced in a greenhouse with stingless bees showed greater fruit weight and number of seeds than fruit produced in a greenhouse without stingless bees or pollinated by mechanical vibration. According to the obtained results, we suggest that T. pagdeni could be beneficial as an insect pollinator of greenhouse tomatoes in tropical regions, where the use of honeybees and bumblebees would be more difficult.