Pollinator diversity and foraging behaviour of honey BEE, Apis cerana indica on niger Thangjam Rojeet*, Ramya H.R., Deka M.K., Borah R.K., Singh H.R. Department of Entomology, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, 785013, Assam *Email: rojeetthangjam@gmail.com
Online published on 23 October, 2018. Abstract Investigation on the diversity of insect pollinators on niger crop revealed that a total of 19 species of insect pollinators visit the flowers. These belong to ten families under five orders viz., Hymenoptera, Diptera, Coleoptera, Hemiptera and Lepidoptera. Apis dorsata, A. cerana indica, A. florea, Andrena sp., Phytomia zonata, Eristalinus taeniops, E. punctulatus, Eristalinus arvorum, Erisyrphus balteatus, Micraspis discolor, Harmonia dimidiata, Popillia sp., Aulacophora foveicollis, Dysdercus cingulatus, Tajuria cippus, Chilades sp., Pieris canidia indica, Nyctemera sp. and Amata sp. were observed. Among these, A. cerana indica was the dominant forager (41.95%) followed by A. florea (20.13%) and A. dorsata (19.80%). The activity of the pollinators was maximum during 0900 to 1100 hr. The maximum number (8.67 ± 0.33) of A. cerana indica/m2/min was observed during 1000–1100 hr and minimum (1.33 ± 0.33) at 1600–1700 hr. The highest frequency of flower visit/min. was 14.00 ± 0.58 at 1000–1100 hr and the lowest (02.33 ± 0.33 visits/min) at 1600–1700 hr. Likewise, maximum time spent/flower was 4.99 ± 0.40 sec during 1000–1100 hr and minimum was 1.00 ± 0.06 sec during 1600–1700 hr. Top Keywords Niger, pollinators, diversity, honey bee, Apis cerana indica, visiting hours, foraging, time spent per flower. Top |