Foraging animals must often decide among resources which vary in quality and quantity. Nectar is a resource that exists along a continuum of quality in terms of sugar concentration and is the primary energy source for bees. Alternative sugar sources exist, including fruit juice, which generally has lower energetic value than nectar. We observed many honeybees (Apis mellifera scutellata) foragin...

The study was conducted to determine the effects of nitrogen fertilizing systems and harvest frequency on levels of hard-seedness and hard-seed softening trend in M. scutellata var. Robinson. The study was carried out at Agricultural Research Farm of University of Tehran in Karaj during 2006. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with a split-split plot arrangement with four r...

Phoma black stem and leaf spot disease (Phoma medicaginis) not only destroys annual Medicago spp. forage seed yield but also reduces herbage quality by consequent phytoestrogen production that ovulation of grazing animals. Two controlled environment studies evaluated the effects plant developmental stage in rugosa ‘Paraponto’ M. scutellata ‘Sava’ different inoculum concentrations P. medicaginis...

in order to evaluate the effects of crop cultivars and living mulchon sunflower yield and weed control, a field experiment was carried out as factorial arrangement based on a randomized complete block design with three replications in 2013. treatements were sunflower cultivars (‘azargol’, ‘allstar’, ‘farokh’) and weed control treatments (weed-free, weed-infestation and intercropping of fagopyru...

The expansion of Africanized honeybees from South America to the southwestern United States in <50 years is considered one of the most spectacular biological invasions yet documented. In the American tropics, it has been shown that during their expansion Africanized honeybees have low levels of introgressed alleles from resident European populations. In the United States, it has been speculated...

Previous work has shown that African elephants Loxodonta africana will avoid African honeybees Apis mellifera scutellata. Here we present results from a pilot study conducted to evaluate the concept of using beehives to mitigate elephant crop depredation. In Laikipia, Kenya, we deployed a 90-m fence-line of nine inter-connected hives, all empty, on two exposed sides of a square two-acre farm th...