Vol. 11 (2 & 3) : March-June 2020 issue
Green Farming Vol. 11 (2 & 3) : 287-289 ; March-June, 2020
Effects of foraging activity of honeybees on onion crop in Nalanda district of Bihar
B.B. SINGH1*, P.D. MANE2 and S.K. SINGH3
Department of Agricultural Entomology, Nalanda College of Horticulture, Noorsarai - 803 113 (Nalanda) (Bihar)
Designation : 1Assistant Professor *(beerento@rediffmail.com), 2Associate Professor,
3Assistant Professor (Vegetable Science)
Subject : Entomology
Paper No. : P-7877
Total Pages : 3
Received : 04 April 2020
Revised accepted : 30 May 2020
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Citation :
B.B. SINGH, P.D. MANE and S.K. SINGH. 2020. Effects of foraging activity of honeybees on onion crop in Nalanda district of Bihar. Green Farming Vol. 11 (2 & 3) : 287-289 ; March-June, 2020.
ABSTRACT
The field experiments were carried out at Experimental farm of Nalanda College of Horticulture, Noorsarai, Bihar, India during rabi seasons of 2018 to 2019, to identify the various species of insect pollinators including honeybees and their peak visiting hours in a day. The observations revealed that the foraging speed was highest (8.71) of Apis mellifera on the 11th March, 2019 followed by Apis dorsata (8.17), Apis cerena (7.04), Apis florea (6.21) and syrphid fly (3.68). The mean foraging rate was maximum in syrphid fly followed by A. florae, A. cerena, A. dorsata and A. mellifera on all the dates as 25th Feb., 04th March, 11th March, 18th March and 25th March 2019. The initiation-cessation of different insect pollinators observed on onion seed crop reveals that A. mellifera started foraging earlier on all the dates followed by Syrphid fly, A. florae, A. dorsata. The best insect pollinator observed was honey bees for onion crop. The syrphid fly was the second best and the rest insects were minor pollinator.
Key words :
Foraging rate, Foraging speed, Honey bees, Insect pollinators, Onion crop.
