Insect pollinators diversity and abundance in Eruca sativa Mill. (Arugula) and Brassica rapa L. (Field mustard) crops

Abstract

Studies on the insect pollinators diversity and their relative abundance in Eruca sativa Mill. (Arugula) and Brassica rapa L. (field mustard) was carried out during spring season from February to April consecutively during all the three years of 2016–18. Insect pollinators observed belonged to four orders i.e. Hymenoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera, and Coleoptera. A total of 20 major species of insect pollinators were recorded. The highest abundance of pollinator species belonged to Hymenoptera. The most prominent insect pollinator species were Apis mellifera followed by other three honey bee species of A. cerana, A. florea, and A. dorsata respectively. Some species of solitary bees were also recorded. From Diptera, four species of syrphid fly and one species from Muscidae family were also recorded. Insect pollinators recorded from order Lepidoptera were Pieris brassicae, Vanessa cardui, and Papilio demoleus. Lady bird beetle Coccinella septempunctata was recorded from Coleoptera order as occasional visitor. It was noticed that E. sativa attracted more insect pollinators than B. rapa which may be attributed to different amount and chemical properties of nectar, with number of pollen grains, and flower canopy of both crops. Further studies are needed to confirm the reasons for higher pollinator visitation to E. sativa than B. rapa through chemical analysis of nectar, amount of pollens, flower physiology and phenology of both crops.

Pollination biology of Albizia lebbeck (L.) Benth. (Fabaceae: Mimosoideae) with reference to insect floral visitors

“…According to Anderson and Symon (1988), the species belonging to genus Nomia and Amegilla were most abundant on the flowers of Solanum in Australia. However, A. dorsata and A. florea have been reported as the most abundant species on the flowers of bitter gourd Saeed et al (2012), canola (Akhtar et al, 2018, Ali et al, 2011, Kumar and Singh, 2005, Shakeel et al, 2019).…”

Description of the preimaginal stages of the golden native dronefly from Australia, Eristalinus punctulatus (Macquart, 1847) (Diptera: Syrphidae)

“…In particular, the eristaline flies (Eristalini tribe) are well known for their pollination efficiency (Holloway 1976;Ssymank et al 2008;Howlett & Gee 2019). Although most of the attention regarding this issue has been paid to the genus Eristalis Latreille, 1804 (Gladis 1997;Jarlan et al 1997;Pérez-Bañón et al 2007;Jauker et al 2012), the genus Eristalinus Rondani, 1845 is frequently an important part of the pollinator community in both natural and anthropic environments (de la Bandera & Traveset 2006;Saeed et al 2008;Tanács et al 2008;Latif et al 2019;Shakeel et al 2019). However, artificial rearing and mass production are required to use these species to pollinate commercial crops.…”

Biotechnological Potential of Araucaria angustifolia Pine Nuts Extract and the Cysteine Protease Inhibitor AaCI-2S

“…In most cases, the biological role of these proteins is assigned based on their in vitro activity, as is the case with lectins and enzyme inhibitors. In other cases, their role is confirmed by more direct analysis such as the incorporation of these in artificial diets used in insect feeding, their incorporation into culture media for microorganism culture, or even through the expression of these proteins in transgenic plants [8,9].…”