Pollination of Eria Coronaria by Honeybee (Apis cerena)

 

Honeybee (Apis cerena Fabricius)

Apis cerana is commonly known as Asiatic honeybee, it was observed visiting orchid Eria coronaria landing on the labellum and enter the floral whorl to search for food. When the bee enter and exited from the flower, pollinia got attached on the bee thorax along with the anther cap. The gentle movement by bee or wind led to the removal of the anther cap exposing the pollinia set. The bee on its single visit was found to enter more than 2 flowers of the same species. whereby attaching pollinia on to the stigma. 

A. cerena was observed mostly during the warm sunny day and least during cloudy and windy weather conditions.  E. coronaria was visited only by this pollinator and process of successful pollination was observed. Similar observation have been recorded in China on visitation by Fazhi, Jin, Yuanxin & Yibo (2008). Therefore the pollinator is classified as confirmed pollinator of Eria coronaria Lindl. The orchid seems to cause food-fraud or food deception to attract A. cerana since, no nectar or pollen reward was produced by the orchid.

The success in pollinia transfer by Apis cerana was observed in E. coronaria. The fruiting success was 50% or 100% which signifies that the pollinator is facilitating the successful pollination and fruit set of the orchid. Therefore, the success in fruit set of E. coronaria after the visit by A. cerana also confirms it as the true or confirmed pollinator. 

Photo credit to Tshering Nidup Sir (lecturer, Sherubtse College) who provided the pictures of the honeybee caring pollinia of E. coronaria, (observation made from his personal orchids collections).

References

Fazhi, S., Jin, C., Yuanxin, X., & Yibo, L. (2008). Deceptive pollination of an autumn flowering orchid Eria coronaria (Orchidaceae). Biodiversity Science, 16 (5), 477.