FORAGING BEHAVIOR OF HONEYBEE POLLINATION IN CORIANDER AND MUSTARD
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Date
2018
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Publisher
Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi, Jharkhand-6
Abstract
The honey bees play vital role in pollination of many field crops, vegetables, fruits
and fodder crops. Keeping this in view a field experiment entitled “Foraging behavior
of honeybee pollination in coriander and mustard”” was carried out in the Apiary of
Birsa Agricultural University, Kanke, Ranchi, Jharkhand. Species of insects pollinators
visiting on mustard and coriander crops during flowering in the last week of December
2016 to January 2017 were collected from open pollinated plot, their number and species
were identified and proportion was also noted. More than eight type of pollinating
insects visited the mustard and coriander crops like Apis mellifera, Apis cerana, Apis
dorsata, with peak period of visit ranging from 9:00 am to 11:00 am. During the
morning time 07:00 to 09:00 hrs, number of bees / m² / 5 min. was highest for Apis
mellifera (5.69) followed by Apis florea (4.63). In coriander, relative abundance of Apis
mellifera was 4.16 / m²/ 5 min. during 7:00 – 9:00 am which increased to 16.08 during
9:00 – 11:00 am. Among the different honeybee species, the maximum mean number of
flowers / min (9.56) was visited by Apis mellifera in mustard while in coriander,
maximum foraging rate of 16.83 flowers / min was recorded during 09:00 hrs to
11:00hrs for Apis mellifera. The diurnal foraging pattern of insects visitors on mustard
and coriander was also noted. During early morning period (07:00 – 9:00 hr), the
maximum visits was seen for Apis mellifera (4.82) in mustard while it was 3.62 in
coriander. The foraging speed (time spent / flower) by honey bee species was recorded
from mustard and coriander flower. The foraging speed of nectar gathered by different
species of bee. The time spent by insects including honeybees during morning (07:00 –
9:00 hrs) was maximum for Apis mellifera (7.04) in mustard while it was 7.42 in
coriander. The foraging speed of honeybee species for pollen gathered in mustard during
09:00 – 11:00 hrs was seen maximum for Apis mellifera (8.15) in mustard while
maximum foraging speed for pollen gathering was 8.15 by Apis mellifera in coriander.
Apis mellifera started initation earlier (8:46 am) followed by Apis cerana indica (9:02
am) in mustard. In coriander, Apis dorsata started initiation earlier (8:07 am). The
correlation studies on mustard revealed that sunshine (hrs.), had highly significant and
positive correlation with population build up Apis mellifera (0.773**), Apis dorsata
(0.828**), Apis cerana, (0.838**), Apis florea (0.892**) and other insects (0.921**)
respectively. The correlation studies on coriander had highly significant and positive
correlation with population build up Apis mellifera (0.961**), Apis dorsata (0.918**),
Apis cerana (0.692**), Apis florea (0.713**), and other pollinators (0.951**)
respectively. The effect of different modes of pollination on yield and yield attributing
characters on mustard showed that pollination caged with Apis mellifera resulted in
maximum number of flower per plant (162.91), number of siliqua per plant (146.98),
number of seeds per siliqua (14.11) and 1000 seed weight (4.01 gm). In coriander also,
pollination caged with Apis mellifera resulted in maximum number per plant (233.27),
number of umbel per plant (177.01), number of seeds per umbel (22.39) and 1000 seed
weight (10.11 gram).
Description
FORAGING BEHAVIOR OF HONEYBEE POLLINATION IN CORIANDER AND MUSTARD
Keywords
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