Behaviour of honey bees visiting kiwifruit flowers

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Abstract
Honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) were shown to be able to discriminate between staminate (male) and pistillate (female) kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa) flowers. They exhibited floral sex constancy and showed an overall preference for pistillate flowers when visiting flowers on a tray. This indicates that honey bee pollination of kiwifruit is not a case of “mistake pollination”. Foragers also exhibited flower sex constancy between trips when foraging freely in a kiwifruit orchard. A number of foragers also had foraging areas that they returned to during consecutive foraging trips. Honey bees visited staminate flowers between 1 and 3 days old, and pistillate flowers between 1 and 5 days old in a season when pistillate anther dehiscence took 5 days. When pistillate anther dehiscence took only 3 days, foragers only visited flowers between 1 and 3 days old. This suggests that foragers are able to determine whether a kiwifruit flower contains pollen without having to land on it.