Tracking Honey Bees in Cotton Fields with Fluorescent Pigments

Abstract

A unique planting arrangement of rows of Pima S-1 and Pima 32 long staple cotton provided an opportunity for observing the transfer of fluorescent pigment by honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) between flowers of the two varieties. Although a preference was shown for Pima S-1, both varieties were visited and cross visited. Pigments placed in Pima 32 flowers were about equally distributed to both varieties, but pigments placed in Pima S-1 flowers were distributed two to three times as frequently to Pima S-1 as to Pima 32 flowers. There was no significant relationship between distance and number of marked blooms in the entire field, but this may have been due to the heterogeneous arrangement of the varieties. Tests using small areas within homogeneous plantings showed a highly significant distance effect.