Search results for "pollinators"

Neonicotinoids in excretion product of phloem-feeding insects kill beneficial insects

2019

Significance The use of insecticides in agriculture is one of the suggested causes of the decline in insect populations. Neonicotinoids are among the most widely used insecticides. However, they have important negative side effects, especially for pollinators and other beneficial insects feeding on floral nectar and pollen. We identified an exposure route: Neonicotinoids reach and kill beneficial insects when they feed on the most abundant carbohydrate source for insects in agroecosystems, honeydew. Honeydew is the excretion product of phloem-feeding hemipteran insects such as aphids, mealybugs, whiteflies, or psyllids. This route of exposure is likely to affect a much wider range of benefi…

Don't Know Much about Bumblebees?-A Study about Secondary School Students' Knowledge and Attitude Shows Educational Demand.

2018

Many insects are threatened with extinction, which in the case of pollinating insects could lead to declining pollination services and reduced ecosystem biodiversity. This necessitates rethinking how we deal with nature in general. Schools are ideal places in which to instill a willingness to behave in an environmentally-friendly way. Whereas scientific studies and school textbooks stress the importance of honeybees as pollinators, the role of bumblebees is either underestimated or neglected. The aim of this study was to provide information concerning student knowledge and attitudes, which are important factors of an individual’s environmental awareness. A questionnaire with closed and open…

Honeybees prefer novel insect-pollinated flower shapes over bird-pollinated flower shapes

2019

AbstractPlant–pollinator interactions have a fundamental influence on flower evolution. Flower color signals are frequently tuned to the visual capabilities of important pollinators such as either bees or birds, but far less is known about whether flower shape influences the choices of pollinators. We tested European honeybee Apis mellifera preferences using novel achromatic (gray-scale) images of 12 insect-pollinated and 12 bird-pollinated native Australian flowers in Germany; thus, avoiding influences of color, odor, or prior experience. Independent bees were tested with a number of parameterized images specifically designed to assess preferences for size, shape, brightness, or the number…

Enhancement of the Diversity of Pollinators and Beneficial Insects in Intensively Managed Vineyards

2021

Simple Summary The continuous intensification of agricultural production has resulted in higher yields and more yield security. However, these achievements went along with the substitution of heterogeneous agricultural landscapes by homogeneous ones with poor crop diversity, short crop rotations, and thanks to the high efficacy of modern herbicides and also to minimum in-crop diversity. A severe increase in plot size led to the elimination of ecologically valuable structural elements that had provided floral resources and nesting sites. Over the few last decades, several studies have been conducted to try to find solutions against insect decline and to preserve biodiversity. In the present …

Efficacia dei pronubi sulla produttività del melone d'inverno( Cucumis melo var. inodorus) in coltura protetta.

1998

Effects of landscape composition on hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae) in mass-flowering crop fields within forest-dominated landscapes

2022

Agricultural intensification has led to structurally simplified landscapes with reduced and fragmented resources for farmland insects. However, studies on the effects of landscape composition on farmland insects have mainly been performed in areas dominated by open arable land and semi-natural grasslands, while studies from forest-dominated landscapes are scarce. This research examined the effects of landscape composition on hoverfly species richness and abundance in arable land in boreal forest-dominated landscapes. Hoverflies were sampled in 22 mass-flowering caraway (Carum carvi) fields in Central Finland using pan traps. The effects of landscape composition on species richness and abund…

Essential oils of Chiliadenus lopadusanus (Asteraceae).

2013

The essential oils from the leaves and flowers of Chiliadenus lopadusanus growing on Lampedusa Island were obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by GC-MS. The major component was camphor (39.4% in the leaves and 24.0% in the flowers), followed in the leaves by torreyol (6.7%), t-cadinol (5.2%) and 1,8-cineole (3.8%), while in the flowers by t-cadinol (15.2%), t-muurolol (5.1%) and torreyol (4.5%). Among the compounds identified, several seem to play a role in antibacterial, antifungal, allelopathic and spasmolytic activity. In addition, several compounds identified in this study seem to influence the attraction of Megachile (Eutricharaea) apicalis (Megachilidae) and Halictus (Seladonia…

Influence of different pollinators on Winter melon grown under polyethyle tunnels

2002

Milichiella lacteipennis: new record for Lampedusa Island (Italy).

2009

The authors report the first record of Milichiella lacteipennis (Loew) (Diptera Milichiidae) in Lampedusa Island (Italy), and give information on its distribution and biology.

Periploca laevigata Aiton subsp. angustifolia (Labill.) Markgraf on Lampedusa Island

2012

Periploca laevigata Aiton subsp. angustifolia (Labill.) Markgraf [synonym: Periploca laevigata Labill.] (Apocynaceae – Periplocoideae sensu Endress & Bruyns 2000) is a Mediterranean-Saharan element growing wild in the low and middle Mediterranean basin and descending southwards to the northern and central Sahara. It is found in North Africa (from Morocco to Egypt), southern Spain, Sicily, Malta, Crete, Lebanon and Syria (Ghrabi 2005). In Sicily it is reported only from some Sicilian Islands: Egadi, Pantelleria, Lampedusa and Linosa (Pignatti 1982). In this paper we report some unpublished data and a summary of information of recent publications on P. laevigata subsp. angustifolia made durin…