Author: Eswarappa GPublisher: Amazon Publishers, USA
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 89
Book Description
The yields of agricultural crops can be significantly increased through good management practices including effective pollination. Cucurbits mainly depend on insects for pollination because the male and female organs do not occur in the same flower and pollen grains are large and sticky to be carried by wind. Chow-chow is commonly called as chayote (Sechium edule (Jacq) Sw.) belongs to family Cucurbitaceae. The efficacy of different species of honey bees viz., Apis cerana, A. mellifera, A. florea and T. iridipennis in cross-pollination of chow-chow was studied during summer 2001 at Regional Research Station, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bangalore. Activity of different insect pollinators including honey bee species and their influence on fruit set, fruit quality and seed quality parameters were studied. The quantity and quality of nectar from pistillate and staminate flowers was also estimated to know its impact on foraging activity. At flowering, chow-chow crop was frequently visited by 26 insect species of which 14 belonged to the order; Hymenoptera and four each belong to order Diptera, Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. Apis dorsata, A. cerana indica, A. florea and Trigona iridipennis which accounted more than 82 per cent of the total insect pollinators visiting chow-chow crop. Significantly maximum fruit set was found in open pollinated plots (81%) and the lowest was found in control plots (10.5%). Among the honey bee species, maximum fruit set was found in A. florea caged plots (78%) and the lowest was found in T. iridipennis caged plots (61%).