Kamatchi Murali NARMADHA, Pernamallur Ayyaswami SARAVANAN, Govindasamy UMAPATHY, Muthusamy VELMURUGAN

FORAGING ACTIVITY and ROLE OF STINGLESS BEE Tetragonula iridipennis Smith (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in BITTER GOURD

In the bitter gourd cropping system, honey bees are the primary pollinators. In southern India, a field study was conducted at Coimbatore district at 10˚ 58̍ 46.164̎ N latitude and 76˚ 55̍ 53.562̎ E longitude, to record the foraging activity and pollination efficiency of the stingless bee Tetragonula iridipennis in bitter gourd. Bee foraging activity was recorded separately in male and female flowers, with the number of foragers/flower/min, and fruit set and yield were assessed under three different conditions: pollinator exclusion, bee pollination and open pollination. The abundance of pollinators and foraging rate of stingless bees observed on male flowers was 1.71 bees/ flower/ minute and flower handling time in seconds (37.86 sec) was higher than female flowers (1.22 bees / flower/ minute) and (25.73 sec), respectively. The peak foraging activity of stingless bees was observed between 08:00-10:00 hours with 3.30 bees/ 5 mins. The pollination efficiency index of stingless bees in bitter gourd flowers was 41600 pollen grains. The foraging activity of bees at the hive entrance was at its peak from 08:00 to 10:00 hours. T. Iridipennis colony growth parameters showed increased honey sealed area of 1464.5 g and brood development. The experiment results showed that yield was higher in the managed bee-pollinated condition in terms of the number of fruits/plant (18.2 fruits) and fruit yield per hectare (44.08 t/ha) than in the open-pollinated condition (16.5 fruits) and (38.30 t/ha), and with pollinators excluded, no fruit set was recorded.

Keywords:

Bitter gourd, T. iridipennis, Pollination efficacy, Foraging activity,

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