Background Chile is the second largest avocado producer in the world. However, there have been few studies on interactions between native bees and avocado pollination in a Chilean environment. The flowering period of avocado is very sensitive to temperature fluctuations and so environmental conditions, particularly cool temperatures, can have a strong influence on its floral behaviour. Thus, we aimed to determine whether temperature also influences bee visitation rates to avocado flowers or if this was due to the number of available flowers. Moreover, we proposed to verify the attractiveness of avocado flowers to native bees and compare flower handling time and type of floral resource collected between managed and native bees. Methods An avocado orchard of “Hass” cultivar located in the Mediterranean region of Chile was studied during the flowering season of 2016. The frequency of exotic and native bee species in flowers, floral phenology, and environmental temperature were analysed, and the foraging behaviours of exotic and native bee species in avocado flowers compared. Results Five Chilean native and two exotic species were recorded visiting avocado flowers at the studied orchard. The bees generally sought nectar rather than pollen. The European honeybee ( Apis mellifera ) was the most frequent flower visitor, followed by the native species Colletes cyanescens and Cadeguala occidentalis . There was a strong positive correlation between temperature and number of visits, but no significant correlation between number of open flowers and number of visits. Conclusions Native Chilean bees visited avocado flowers and some of them were frequent floral visitors. They generally sought for nectar rather than pollen and were as fast as honeybees handling avocado flowers. The environmental temperature plays a key role in the frequency of bees in avocado flowers. The warmer weather is related to the higher number of bees visits to avocado flowers.

中文翻译：

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鳄梨作物作为智利本土蜜蜂的花卉资源

背景智利是世界第二大鳄梨生产国。然而，关于智利环境中本地蜜蜂与鳄梨授粉之间相互作用的研究很少。鳄梨的开花期对温度波动非常敏感，因此环境条件，尤其是凉爽的温度，会对其花卉行为产生强烈影响。因此，我们旨在确定温度是否也会影响蜜蜂对鳄梨花的访问率，或者这是由于可用花的数量。此外，我们建议验证鳄梨花对本地蜜蜂的吸引力，并比较管理蜜蜂和本地蜜蜂之间收集的花卉资源的处理时间和类型。方法以2016年开花季节智利地中海地区的“Hass”品种鳄梨果园为研究对象，分析外来和本土蜂种在花中的频率、花物物候和环境温度，并分析其觅食行为。比较了鳄梨花中的外来和本地蜜蜂物种。结果 记录到五个智利本地物种和两个外来物种访问所研究果园的鳄梨花。蜜蜂通常寻找花蜜而不是花粉。欧洲蜜蜂 (Apis mellifera) 是最常来访的花卉，其次是本地物种 Colletes cyanescens 和 Cadeguala occidentalis。温度与访问次数呈强正相关，但开放花数与访问次数无显着相关性。结论 智利本土蜜蜂拜访了鳄梨花，其中一些是花卉的常客。他们通常寻找花蜜而不是花粉，并且像蜜蜂处理鳄梨花一样快。环境温度对牛油果花中蜜蜂的频率起着关键作用。天气变暖与蜜蜂访问鳄梨花的数量增加有关。