Observations on the Behaviour of Honeybees on Onion and their Effects on Seed Yield

SummaryIn experiments in Egypt with open and bagged umbels of onion (Allium cepa) cv. Giza 6 Improved, honeybees were the main insect pollinator. On average, in 1 minute 2·6 honeybees visited any one umbel, any one bee visited 2·7 umbels, and there were 6·8 bee movements between florets of an umbel.Visitation by honeybees gave a highly significant improvement in the percentage of seed set, the weight of seed per umbel, and the seed yield per plant. Rate of seed germination was also higher.