Pollinator Diversity and Relative Abundance of Insect Visitors on Apple Crop in Kullu Hills of Western Himalaya India

V.K. Mattu; Thakur Bhagat

Volume : IV, Issue : VI, June - 2015

Pollinator Diversity and Relative Abundance of Insect Visitors on Apple Crop in Kullu Hills of Western Himalaya India

V. K. Mattu, Thakur Bhagat

Abstract :

Studies on diversity and relative abundance of various insect visitors to apple crop was made by collecting them in different orchards located at Bhalogi (1400 m), Baskhola (1580 m) and Dhamadhar (1810 m) of Kullu hills of Western Himalaya. Insect diversity studies showed that apple flowers were visited by 39 species of insects belonging to 6 orders and 19 families of class Insecta. Of these, 18 species belonged to Hymenoptera, 9 to Diptera, 6 to Lepidoptera, 3 to Coleoptera, 2 to Hemiptera and 1 to order Thysanoptera. Analyses of data on relative abundance of different insect visitors revealed that Indian hive bee, A. cerana was the most abundant insect visitor to apple flowers in all the three experimental orchards i.e. Bhalogi (17.63%), Baskhola (18.21%) and Dhamadhar (20.21%). Other important hymenopterans at Bhalogi, Baskhola and Dhamadhar orchards were European honey bee, A. mellifera (14.93%, 15.97% and 14.51%), Bombus tunicatus (2.04%, 3.09% and 2.53%) and Ceratina simillima (4.19%, 2.40% and 4.21%). Besides, hymenopterans, dipterans also constituted an important group of insect pollinators.