Inventory of Insect Visitors, Foraging Behaviour and Pollination Efficiency of Honeybees (Apis melliferaL.) (Hymenpoptera: Apidae) on Plum (Prunus salicinaLindl.) (Rosaceae) in the Constantine Area, Algeria

Abstract

A list of insect visitors of plum was established during the 2009 and 2010 flowering period for an orchard in Constantine. Four orders of insects were encountered on flowers: Hymenoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. The last three orders made very few visits. The honeybee was the most abundant visitor in both years, representing 79 % and 78 % of recorded visits. Foraging honeybees visited on average nine flowers per minute and 27 flowers per tree, and flights were most frequent between adjacent trees of different rows (56 %). Only the flowers that received between three and five honeybee visits yielded fruit and the percentages of fruits formed were similar (31.6 % and 30.4 % in 2009 and 2010, respectively).