[Pollinator] Fact Checking?

[carloshvergara at yahoo.com]

Hi, Peter.
I have recorded Scaptotrigona mexicana pollinating coffee in Veracruz, Mexico and Scaptotrigona ederi pollinating coffee in Santa Elena Ecuador. They are indeed small, but they move intensively about the coffee flowers and chew on the anthers to collect pollen.
I am attaching a photograph of S. mexicana and a very short (unfortunately) video of S. ederi. Carlos H. Vergara
 


     El Lunes, 9 de noviembre, 2015 11:54:28, Peter Bernhardt <bernhap2 at slu.edu> escribió:
   

 Within the last week there two statements appeared regarding the the pollination of crops.  The comments of members working on bee-pollination of crops would be appreciated.
1) November 5, Saint Louis U.  A bee conservation lecture series was held.  One of the speakers was Gerald Hayes from Monsanto on the role of honeybees and our food supply.  Hayes insisted that our North American, cultivated, cranberries were pollinated by honeybees.  Is this correct?  I remember a seminar by Jim Cane emphasizing the importance of native megachilids for cranberry pollination.  The speaker also insisted that blueberries were pollinated primarily by honeybees in North America. 
2) CJ Bradshaw and Paul Ehrlich released a coauthored by book from University of Chicago Press (my publisher) last month.  On page 58 the authors insist that Trigona (species not identified) pollinates 90 species of crop plants including coffee.  I know that most coffee marketed today is self-pollinating although it still yields sufficient nectar for introduced honeybees to make honey but what of the other 89 other crop species?  I am aware that Trigona pollinate avocados, macadamias and a few other fruit/nut trees but, generally speaking, their bodies are too small to contact both anthers and stigmas as they forage.   
Peter
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