A global assessment of the species composition and effectiveness of watermelon pollinators and the management strategies to inform effective pollination service delivery

Fruit set is moderately dependent on insect pollinators in strawberry and is limited by the availability of pollen under natural open conditions

“…There is debate about the importance of Apis and non-Apis species for the pollination of agricultural and wild plants (e.g. Aebi & Neumann, 2011;Aebi et al, 2012;Arachchige et al, 2023;Baena-Díaz et al, 2022;Corbet, 1991aCorbet, , 1991bCusser et al, 2021;Iwasaki & Hogendoorn, 2022;Kilpinen et al, 2022;Morse, 1991;Muñoz et al, 2021;Ollerton et al, 2012;Schmidlin et al, 2021;Vaidya et al, 2023;Weekers et al, 2022b). Burns and Stanley (2022) demonstrated that honeybees, bumblebees, solitary bees and hoverflies contributed to pollination of apple in Ireland.…”

“…Total production is 14 million tonnes, with China producing 41% of the crop (Lei et al, 2021) and the United States 19% of the crop (Samtani et al, 2019). High-yielding cultivars are crucial for viable production, with land, labour and marketing expensive in many areas (Guthman & Jiménez-Soto, 2021) Modern cultivars are hermaphrodite and have fertile flowers, with the anthers releasing viable pollen (Ashman et al, 2015;Ashman, 2003;Free, 1968aFree, , 1968bFree, , 1993. Cultivars are self-compatible and do not require cross-pollination (Du et al, 2021a(Du et al, , 2021bHortyñski et al, 1972).…”