Who visits the tropical biofuel crop Jatropha curcas L. flowers?

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1 Who visits the tropical biofuel crop Jatropha curcas L. flowers? Aklilu Negussie, Wouter M.J. Achten, Hans A.F. Verboven, Martin Hermy and Bart Muys Division Forest, Nature and Landscape, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan Introduction Nowadays there is a need to replace fossil based fuels with other alternate energy sources because; Petroleum is becoming expensive, Non-renwable Causing global warming Hence, many countries are looking at growing high oil-yielding crops as biofuel such as J. curcas L.. 1

2 Introduction Biofuel challenges Lack of information Food-fuel competetion large land area requirement Risk of invasiveness and ecosystem damage Pest damage Low economic viability in the absence of subsidies History and background Who is J. curcas L. why do we need to focus on it J. curcas L. (Euphorbiaceae)-Physic nut Native to Central America then carried over most of the tropics and sub-tropics by Portugues traders is a drought resistant and Non-edible Today widely grown as a biofuel crop Seed contains high quality oil (30-40% of oil by seed weight) with a production life time of 50 years 2

3 History and background Jatropha is a monoecious plant, needs pollinators Wind pollination from plant to plant is minimal (Chang-wei et al., 2007) because of the adhesive nature of J. curcas pollen Knowledge on pollination processes of a plant species is a crucial component of regeneration ecology. Therefore, Insight in the diversity and movement of potential pollinators are important aspects of the needed knowledge. Research questions Main research questions Who are the main visitors of J. curcas inflorescences? How frequently do they visit the inflorescence? What kind of forage are they looking for and 3

4 17/03/2012 Research methodology Study sites Tropical climate within the Miombo woodland Eco-region Research methodology Observation Ten trees per site T2 T7 T5 T8 In the morning and afternoon T3 T4 For 10 days 20 minutes per each observation tree in the morning and afternoon T10 T1 0 T1 T6 2m 3m T9 Example of random trees used for flower visitors observation 4

5 Ressults and discussion Main inflorescence visitors Class Order Species richnes Total Individuals Insecta Hymenoptera Insecta Hemiptera Insecta Coleoptera 6 38 Insecta Diptera Insecta Lepidoptera 8 15 Insecta Mantodea 1 1 Arachnida Araneae 2 3 Total 43 4,721 Class order Species richenes Total Individuals Insecta Hymenoptera Insecta Hemiptera Insecta Coleoptera 2 21 Insecta Diptera Insecta Lepidoptera 6 58 Insecta Odonata 1 2 Insecta Orthoptera Total Research questions Visit frequency Morning and afternoon visit frequency a Zambia b Malawi Visit frequency in % P = Time of observation Morning Afternoon Visit frequency in % P = Time of observation Morning Afternoon Hymenoptera Hemiptera Coleoptera Diptera Lepidoptera Mantodea Insect/Arachnida order Araneae 0 Hymenoptera Hemiptera Coleoptera Diptera Lepidoptera Insect order Odonata Orthoptera 5

6 Results and discussions Visit Frequency among the different orders (KW, Х 2 = , P = < 0.001,Zambia and KW, Х 2 = 69.22, P = < 0.001, Malawi ) Zambia Dipterans were the largest group of visitors accounting for 74% C. chloropyga was the most abundant visitor The hymenopterans were the second largest group accounting for 23% Malawi Hymenopterans were the most frequent visitors representing 55% mainly A. mellifera Results and discussions Foraging behavior Zambia Twenty nine insect species (67%) were foraging on nectar and 6 insect and 2 spider species accounting 19% were foraging on both nectar and pollen. 6 Insects (14%) pests Malawi: 15 insects (52%) nectar and 8 insects (28%) insect species both nectar and pollen 6 species (20%) were pests 6

7 Results and discussions Beetles (Coleoptera) orthopteran and bugs (Hemiptera) fed on nectar, pollen or the whole flower Conclussions and recomendations Hymenoptera and Diptera insect species were the most abundant and frequent visitors of J. curcas flowers Honeybees and flies The majority of the recorded flower visitors used nectar Most Hemipterans, coleopterans and orthopteran were observed eating the sepals, petals or the whole flower of J. curcas and we considered these as Jatropha pest 7

8 Conclussions and recomendations Based on their flower handling characteristics honey bees might be more efficient visitors Provision of beehives are advantageous in association with Jatropha plantations: To encourage pollination process and To reduce pollinator competition with native plants Honey production as an additional income Acknowledgements The research team is thankful to: KULEUVEN / IRO QUINVITA NV and D1-OILS Plant science Company D1-Oils Zambia and Malawi staffs University of Zambia ( UNZA) Germen Federal institute for Geo-science and natural resources (BGR), Lusaka project Zambia Agricultural Research institute 8

9 Thank you for your attention 9