Diversity of floral visitors in bitter gourd in Madurai district, Tamil Nadu Yogapriya A., Usharani B.*, Suresh K., Vellaikumar S.1, Shanthi M. Department of Agricultural Entomology, ICAR-KVK 1Department of Biotechnology, Agricultural College and Research Institute, TNAU, Madurai, 625104 *Email: ushateja@yahoo.com
Abstract Field experiments were conducted to evaluate the diversity of floral visitors/pollinators in bitter gourd Momordica charantia L. at Kutladampatti Village, Vadipatti Block of Madurai district, Tamil Nadu. A total of 30 species were observed of which 14 species are of hymenopterans, 11 species of lepidopterans and 4 species of dipterans. Of Hymenoptera, Tetragonula iridipennis was the most abundant visitor followed by Apis cerana indica and Apis florea. Syrphus sp. was the dominant among dipterans, while Danaus chrysippus was the major one followed by Pachliopta hector, Delias eucharis, Danaus genutia, Tirumala limniace, Pieris sp., Hasora chromus, Eurema sp. Paplio demoleus and Lampedes boeticus among Lepidoptera. Species richness (S) was at its maximum (21 species) at 1000–1200 hr and minimum (4 species) at 1600–1800 hr. Shannon's and Simpson's diversity indices were maximum at 1000–1200 hr with 2.62 and 0.86, respectively. Shannon's evenness ranged from 0.44–0.86, while Simpson's evenness ranged from 0.28–0.54 with the maximum evenness indices being at 1000–1200 hr. Top Keywords Bitter gourd, floral visitors, diversity indices, Lepidoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, visting hours, evenness, temporal, floral opening. Top |