Foraging speed of different Apis spp. on Indian mustard (Brassica juncea) flowers

Abstract

The present investigation was undertaken to gather the information pertaining to honey bee pollinators for their foraging speed while visiting the Indian mustard, Brassica juncea flowers. The experiment was done on Indian mustard (Brassica juncea) variety RH-0749 at Research Area of Oilseeds Section, CCSHAU, Hisar during 2015-2016 Rabi season, which revealed that the mean time spent per flowerwas maximum in case of Apis florea (6.08 sec) followed by A. dorsata (3.41 sec), A. mellifera (2.60 sec) and A. cerana indica (2.33 sec).The mean time spent per flower of different Apis spp. over different day hours ranged from 3.25 to 4.20 seconds. The minimum time spent per flower by A. mellifera, A. cerana indica and A. dorsata was 2.38 seconds, 2.02 seconds, 2.97 seconds simultaneously recorded at 1200-1400 h but A. florea spent least time per flower (4.23 sec) at 0800-1000 h on Brassica juncea.