Polinização da aboboreira (Cucurbita pepo L.) : um estudo sobre a comunidade de abelhas em sistemas orgânicos e convencionais de produção no Distrito Federal

Among insects, bees are considered the main floral visitors and pollinators of squash Cucurbita spp. The objectives were to study the community of floral visitors Cucurbita pepo in organic and conventional production systems and evaluate the influence of the surrounding landscape of crops on the richness and abundance of bees. Moreover to identify, between the floral visitors of C. pepo, what are their likely pollinators, and if there is a deficit of pollination of this crop in the region. The study was conducted in C. pepo L. crops, “abobrinha italiana”, in both production systems in the Federal District in the years 2013 and 2014, between the months of July and October. Bees were collected directly in C. pepo flowers using of plastic bottles and made observations on the foraging behavior. In the pollination deficit experiment were marked 30 female flowers/property and evaluated the percentage of fruit set and fruit quality parameters. For each property was characterized landscape in a distance of 2km and generated using maps and land occupation. In two years of sampling were collected 3.879 individuals in the flowers of C. pepo, distributed into two families (Apidae and Halictidae), 23 genera and 35 species. The four most abundant species were: Apis mellifera, Trigona spinipes, Trigona hyalinata and Partamona combinata. Bee abundance was significantly higher for the organic system (p<0.001) compared to the conventional, but the richness did not differ between the two production systems (p=0.5). The presence of areas with native vegetation surrounding the C. pepo crops had a positive influence on the species richness of bees. Regarding the foraging behavior of the most abundant floral visitors, the most important pollinators of C. pepo in organic and conventional production properties were: Apis mellifera, Trigona spinipes and Trigona hyalinata. In the pollination deficit experiment we observed 100% of fruiting, indicating that both production systems located in the Federal District have no pollinators deficit in C. pepo squash for this period the experiment was conducted. Key-words: pollination; production systems; landscape; Cucurbitaceae; squash.