Diversity and Abundance of Insect Pollinators Affecting Seed Production in Mustard (Brassica napus L.)
2023
Aashish, B. | Abrol, D.P.
The studies revealed that honeybees Apis dorsata, A. mellifera, A. cerana and A. florea were the dominant flower visitors and comprised of 83.20% of the total flower visiting insects. Their activities increased with temperature and sunshine and decreased with relative humidity, wind speed, rainfall and evaporation. Foraging population of honeybees were significantly and positively correlated with maximum temperature and minimum temperature and negatively with relative humidity in the morning. The other important insects frequenting mustard flowers were Andrena spp. Danaus plexippus, Pieris brassicae, Musca sp. and Syrphus sp; the latter group of insects mostly collected nectar and frequented at interrupted hours and were not considered as dependable pollinators. The data revealed that hand pollination resulted in significantly higher siliquae per plant than those excluded from insect visits. The caged plants on an average had 448.94 siliquae per plant whereas those left for open pollination resulted in 769.05 siliquae per plant. Open pollination was found to be superior to both the treatments as the number of siliquae produced was much higher 944.54. Similarly, Seeds/20 Siliquae, 1000 seed weight, Seed yield per plant, Seed yield per plot and Seed germination (%) was significantly higher in bee pollinated plots compared to open pollination and self pollination. Open pollination and hand pollination resulted in 118 and 76 per cent enhanced seed yield in mustard as compared to control.
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