Insect fauna associated with pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan L.) in Odisha

Abstract

Field experiments were conducted during Kharif, 2017-2018 undertaken at Entomology Research Station of Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar to study the occurrence of different insect pollinators on Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan L.). Though Pigeon pea is a self pollinated crop with cleistogamous type of flower, it is visited by an array of insects. Under agroclimatic conditions of Odisha, It attracted eleven species of important pollinators represented by family Apidae (45.5%), Megachilidae (36.4%) and Vespidae (18.2%) all belonging to a single order hymenoptera barring stay population of Dipterans and Lepidopterans. Species wise diversity indicated that Megachile lanata Fab. was the most dominant one (29.1%) followed by Megachile disjuncta Fab. (20.5%), Tetragonula iridipennis Smith (14.2%), Apis cerana indica Fab. (10.95%) Megachile bicolor Fab. (10.7%), Xylocopa latipes Drury (8.5%), Megachile hera Bingham (2.1%), Eumenes spp. (1.7%), Xylocopa aestuans Lin. (1.2%), Vespa tropica Lin. (0.8%) and Apis dorsata Fab. (0.2%). It is inferred from the present investigation that Pigeon pea is an ideal crop supporting an array of pollinators, most important being the M. lanata.