BEHAVIOR OF HONEY-BEES VISITING KIWIFRUIT FLOWERS

Honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) were shown to be able to discriminate b etween staminate (male) and pistillate (female) kiwifruit (Actinidia d eliciosa) flowers. They exhibited floral sex constancy and showed an o verall preference for pistillate flowers when visiting flowers on a tr ay. This indicates that honey bee pollination of kiwifruit is not a ca se of ''mistake pollination''. Foragers also exhibited flower sex cons tancy between trips when foraging freely in a kiwifruit orchard. A num ber of foragers also had foraging areas that they returned to during c onsecutive foraging trips. Honey bees visited staminate flowers betwee n 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 pistilla te anther dehiscence took only 3 days, foragers only visited flowers b etween 1 and 3 days old. This suggests that foragers are able to deter mine whether a kiwifruit flower contains pollen without having to land on it.