Abundance of insect pollinators associated with broad bean Vicia faba L. var. major (Fabales: Fabaceae) in North Karnataka

Abstract

An investigation was carried out at Garag village of Dharwad district to study the diversity of pollinators visiting broad bean during rabi 2019. The pollinator fauna of broad bean comprised of a total of nine insect species belonging to three insect orders viz., Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera and Diptera. Among these, Hymenoptera was the most dominant pollinator group with a maximum of 62.27 per cent proportion followed by Lepidoptera (25.16) and Diptera (12.57). The most abundant pollinator among the hymenopterans was the little bee, Apis florea Fabricius which recorded 31.14 per cent proportion followed by Apis dorsata Fabricius, Apis cerana Fabricius and Megachilae sp. with 15.23, 10.60 and 5.30 per cent proportion, respectively. Two species of lepidopterans viz., Phoebis sennae Linnaeus and Lampides boeticus Linnaeus, among depterans, Musca sp., Episyrphus sp., and Lucilia sp were also found visiting broad bean flowers.