Brinjal or eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is widely grown vegetable in South and South-East Asian countries. There are various factors that limits the production of brinjal among which brinjal shoot and fruit borer (Leucinodes orbonalis Guen) is the most common one which occurs during the time at all the phases of the crop development. The damage caused by shoot and fruit borer (Leucinodes orbonalis L.) in brinjal begins immediately after transplantation of crop and growers will have to harvest an immature crop. The life cycle of BSFB completes in 19-28 days. It is estimated by various specialists that increase in the number of shoots per plant will lower the attack rate of the pest. Round shape fruits are more susceptible compared to long bodied fruits. It is also examined that total sugar contents increase the attack while total phenol contents produce resistance to pest. The information of nature and relative extent of gene exploit (additive and non-additive) is of key importance in scheming appropriate and well-organized breeding plan for enhancement of resistance and crop yield. Physical and chemical features, for example, plant structure, fruit form, spines of leaves, branches, petioles, calyx of fruits, fruit skin thickness and shoot thickness, synthetic traits, for example, ash, crude fibre, silica, sugars, mineral ingredients, total phenol contents of fruit and shoot of brinjal are examined to be included towards the shoot and fruit borer resistance in brinjal.Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 6(3): 199-206

Phalsa, Grewia asiatica is a multi-purpose crop while cross-pollination can significantly improve its reproductive success. Megachile bees (Megachilidae) are the most important group of pollinators of G. asiatica. In this study we observed the foraging behavior of Megachile cephalotes and its ultimate impact on reproductive success of phalsa at Bahawalpur (Punjab), Pakistan. Although visitation rate and stay time were statistically similar in both the sexes but visitation frequency (2.06±0.14 individuals/120 seconds) and pollen deposition (39.35±3.17 pollen grains /stigma/visit) of females were significantly higher than that of males (0.44±0.06 individuals/120 seconds and 12.05±1.19 pollen grains/stigma/visit, respectively). The environmental factors (i.e. ambient temperature, relative humidity, sunlight intensity and wind speed) greatly influenced -either positively or negatively- both the sexes (Pearson’s correlation). Female pollinated fruits were significantly greater in weight (0.41±0.017 g) followed by open (0.31±0.012 g) and male (0.27±0.011 g) pollinated fruits. Percent weight loss remained significantly lower in female pollinated fruits than open and male pollinated fruits until12 hours after harvest. Fruit wrinkling significantly increased with the increase in post-harvest intervals in open, female and male pollinated fruits while fruit color changed only in female pollinated fruits. The results of present study suggest female M. cephalotes as the efficient pollinators of G. asiatica in terms of it reproductive success and post-harvest parameters. Future studies should focus biology and ecology of M. cephalotes with special focus on its artificial nesting.

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Assessment of resource partitioning in pollinators at a particular place can be used to conserve plant communities by minimizing their inter-specific competition. Current study was conducted to investigate the occurrence of this phenomenon among plant communities under sub-tropical conditions for the first time in Pakistan. We considered the entire available flowering plant and floral visitor communities in the study area—Lal Suhanra forest of Bahawalpur, Pakistan- along with different variations among them based on morphology, color and symmetry (functional groups) i.e. four functional groups among insects and nine among plants. Weekly floral visitor censuses were conducted during spring season -from the first week of March to the fourth week of May 2018. Thirty individuals of each plant species -in bloom- were observed for floral visitors in each census. Plant species with different floral shapes, colors and symmetry did not show any significant resource partitioning. The Non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis followed by one-way ANOSIM test showed non- significant differences among all the pair of floral shapes, colors (except white and yellow) and symmetry (R-value < 0.168). However, SIMPER test suggested that flies were the most common group that contributed more towards within group similarities of different floral shapes (19 to 21% similarity), colors (16 to 30%) and symmetry (19%) followed by long-tongue bees i.e. 14 to 21%, 9 to 19% and 18%, respectively. Our results suggest that plant communities under sub-tropical conditions of Pakistan exhibit a generalist pollination system with no significant resource partitioning in pollinator species. Therefore, plant communities may have high competition for pollinator species which exhibits fewer implications of species loss on overall pollination process. Our study provides the basis for understanding the partitioning of pollinator guilds under sub-tropical conditions. Future studies should focus on functional traits in more detail at the community and the population scales for their possible impact on resource partitioning.