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EXAMINATION & EXERCISES #1

FOR INSECT POLLINATION

(Contact)

 

For answers please also refer to the following references:

Dafni, Amots; Kevan, Peter G.; and Husband, Brian C.  2005.  Practical Pollination Biology. Enviroquest, Ltd.

Fægri, K. and L. van der Pijl. 1979. The Principles of Pollination Ecology. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Glover, Beverly J.  2007.  Understanding Flowers and Flowering: an Integrated Approach, Oxford University Press, pp. 127.

Richards, A. J. (ed.).  1978.  The Pollination of Flowers by Insects.  Academic Press, New York.  214 p.

 

 

GENERAL PROBLEMS

 

1.  Define asexual reproduction in plants and list three methods by which plants are asexually reproduced.

 

2.  Define self-pollination.

 

3.  In angiosperms (flowering plants) where do you find (a) he male (sperm cell producing) plants and (b) the

           Female  (egg cell producing) plants?

 

4.  Name four ways whereby plants attract insects for pollination.

 

5.  Give and example of each of the following:  (a) Social flower, (b) Dioecious plant (sexes on separate plants,

          (c)  Pinch-trap flower, (d) Hymenopteran flower

 

6.  Wild bees have been successfully introduced from one country to another for purposes of pollination.  Name

           (a) The country of origin, (b) the country of introduction, (c) the kind of wild bee.

 

7.  In most cases what is the main drawback to nesting sites accidentally created by humans?

 

8.  What is the outstanding biological characteristic of all bees that separates them from nearly all other insects?

 

9.  Name the four most important insect orders where members are influential as pollinators.

 

10.  What are three ways whereby available populations of wild bees can be used to best advantage for

             pollination?

 

11.  What is the main objection to the use of Lepidoptera for pollination?

 

12.  Name three ways in which available populations of wild bees could be used to best advantage for pollination.

 

13.  Briefly discuss ancient beekeeping as a business or otherwise.

 

14.  When and by whom was the first great step taken in the direction of modern beekeeping?

 

15.  Honeybees are poor pollinators when compared to many wild bees of different families and genera.  Then

             why are honeybees so widely used worldwide for pollinating agricultural crops?

 

16.  Comment on the returns from beekeeping and the approximate average production per colony per year in

             North America.

 

17.  With the cost of production and the returns in mind, how does beekeeping compare with other agricultural

              enterprises?

 

18.  What kind of bee races are deployed in beekeeping.?

 

19.  What place is given to the Italian race of honeybee?  Name some of its desirable and some of its undesirable

             habits.

 

20.  As far as races of bees are concerned, on what does the progress of bee culture depend?  From the

             standpoint of honey production what can be done to improve a bee colony?

 

21.  What can you say (briefly) of the ancestry of honeybees?

 

22.  What is the scientific name of the honeybee? Where does it rank in its own order? What is the meaning of

             the  scientific name, as now used?

 

23.  Why cannot honeybees live alone? What qualities of the honey bee places it at the top of the list of bees and

         perhaps of all insects?

 

24.  Name and ascribe the various casts of which a honeybee colony is composed. In colonial life, what are the

             functions of the respective individual casts?

 

25.  Describe the nest of the honeybee. What is the relative position of the normal brood comb, of honey and

             brood respectively?

 

26.  Describe a honeybee queen cell.  Compare the queen with other members of the colony. Point out her

             importance.  Give an account of her chief functions in the hive.

 

27.  Discuss the subject: How Queens are produced. Name some of the most important differential effects

             produced on queen and workers larvae respectively, by the peculiar treatment accorded each.

 

28.  Briefly discuss the Drone honeybee. How he is produced; why is he disqualified as a producer of nectar,

             pollen,  or wax; his ability to defend himself, his mission in the colony and how he is qualified to perform

             it. What importance is attached to the control of drone population in a colony?

 

29.  Give the facts relative to the developmental stages of queens, workers, and drones respectively. Briefly

             mention the various duties of workers, showing how they are structurally adapted for the special tasks

             required of them.

 

30.  What are the chief obstacles that have stood in the way of honeybee stock improvement by controlled

             mating? What steps have been taken to overcome them?

 

31.  Mention one important improvement that is being made in bees by scientific breeding. What modern

            discovery or invention is making this possible?

 

32.  What is the present extent of beekeeping in North America?  What is the trend with respect to the number

             of colonies of bees per individual beekeeper, and the number of individuals keeping bees?

 

33.  Summarize the subject: Home Methods of Queen Rearing.

 

34.  Point out two or more essential features of producing queen cells in which all four of the above methods

            agree.

35.  Describe a honeybee Queen mating nucleus.

36.  What conditions through the years have obstructed the improvement of stock? What is now being done to

             overcome this condition?

37.  Briefly discuss production and shipment of packaged bees.