North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>]

It might have something to do with a local population buildup among 
pollinators that like and/or can use kiwiflowers, and that benefit from 
the availability of kiwi flowers. It would look to us like "learning."

I draw an analogy with the custom among dairy farmers to change the 
diets of their cows gradually so that the species composition of their 
gut microorganisms on which they depend so heavily, has time to adjust.

It may also have something to do with a decrease in the number of 
species of pollinators in many places under modern conditions.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada


On 09/06/2011 1:36 PM, Alexander Brands wrote:
> > Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2011 19:52:28 -0700 (PDT)
> > From: John S<swim_at_svc@yahoo.com>
> > Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Bees Don't Like my Kiwis
> > To: North American Fruit Explorers<nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> >
> > Alan,
> >
> > I had a conversation with a local berry grower that also does kiwis
> > a couple of years back.? He indicated it can take years for the
> > local pollinators to discover and get used to kiwi.
>
> An interesting idea, but I'm skeptical.  This would depend on
> individuals (pollinators) living for several years, wouldn't it?
>
> Perhaps another possibility along these lines would be that social
> pollinators don't easily find it, but once one of them does, it tells
> the others in the colony, ala the honeybee dance.....but this would
> still depend on individuals living more than one season and
> remembering where the kiwis are.
>
> I'm not aware of bees doing this, but I'm no expert, and it wouldn't
> be the first time someone underestimated the insects.
>
> Alex