Diversity of Insect pollinators on Pigeon pea, Cajanus cajan L. in Odisha

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted to study the “Diversity of insect pollinators on Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan L.) in Odisha” during Kharif, 2017-2018 at the Entomology block in Central Research Station of Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The Pigeon pea crop attracted eleven species of pollinators represented by 3 families viz., Apidae (45.5%), Megachilidae (36.4%) and Vespidae (18.2%) of order hymenoptera. 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%). All the pollinators were active during early and mid-flowering stage except X. latipes which was more active on the late flowering stage. During various flowering stages (69-159 DAS) of the crop the number of species varied from 5-11 with the Simpson’s diversity index of 0.602-0.897. In general the diversity was almost uniform because of the evenness of the species.