Pollinator Diversity in Bitter Gourd Ecosystem in the Central Tamil Nadu, India | Chapter 3 | Research Perspective on Biological Science Vol. 8

 

Bitter gourd is a tropical vine belonging to the family Cucubitaceae grown mainly in India, China and Southeast Asia. The past two decades have seen unprecedented interest in pollinators and pollination ecology, stimulated in part by concerns about the decline of pollinator abundance and diversity in some parts of the world. Bees are the most studied and utilised pollinators for cucurbit crops throughout the world and provide the greatest contribution to the pollination of cucurbits. The study aimed to document the diversity of insects (floral visitors/pollinators) visiting bitter gourd flowers. A total of 51 species of flower visitors/pollinators were recorded visiting the bitter gourd flowers when recorded from 000 to 1800 hours during the day time, for various needs like the pollen and nectar rewards, to prey on the flower visitors, and to feed on the flowers too. Field surveys were conducted at weekly intervals in two locations in Tiruchirapalli district, Tamilnadu to study the diversity of insects visiting bitter gourd flowers. This includes 19 Hymenopteran insects, 15 Lepidopterans, seven Dipterans and six Coleopterans. Tetragonula iridipennis was the most abundant pollinator, followed by Apis florea, Halictus sp. and Apis cerana indica; while Syrphus ribesii was the dominating Dipteran pollinator. Among the Lepidopterans, Pachliopta hector was the major pollinator, followed by Danaus chrysippus, Tirumala limniace and Delias eucharis. Species richness (S) was at its maximum (26 species) at 0800 – 1000 hours and minimum (07 species) at 1600-1800 hours. Diversity indices were also calculated based on the data, which shows the distribution of a specific group of pollinators at particular hours of the day. All the indices represented the even and uniform distribution of the pollinator groups. Shannon’s and Simpson’s diversity indices were maximum at 1000-1200 hours with 2.52 and 9.18, respectively. Shannon’s evenness ranged from 0.44 – 0.86, and Simpson’s evenness was 0.28 – 0.54 with a maximum at 1000-1200 hours. The study suggests that pesticide applications should be avoided during morning hours to conserve pollinator populations and optimise pollination services in bitter gourd cultivation.

 

 

Author(s) Details

 

Yogapriya Adaikkan
School of Agriculture and Animal Sciences, The Gandhigram Rural Institute - DTBU, Gandhigram, Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, India.

 

B. Usharani
Department of Agricultural Entomology, Agricultural college and Research Institute, TNAU – Madurai, India.

 

K. Suresh
ICAR-KVK, Agricultural College and Research Institute, TNAU – Madurai, India.

 

Please see the book here :- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/rpbs/v8/6400