Vol. 11, Special Issue 2 (2022)

Author(s):
Hasen Maragoor, AS Vastrad, PS Tippannavar, MS Biradar and Suresh R Jambagi

Abstract:
India is one of the biggest producer, consumer and exporter of seed spices because of its diverse soil and climatic regions, ideal to grow many of the seed spices. Being coriander and ajwain are cross pollinated, the understanding of activity of different insect pollinators at various flowering stages is very crucial. During the study period, coriander flowers were visited by 17 species of pollinators (5 Hymenopterans, 6 Dipterans, 2 Coleopterans and 4 Lepidopterans) and ajwain flowers were visited by 23 species of pollinators (6 Hymenopterans, 10 Dipterans, 2 Coleopterans and 5 Lepidopteran).In both coriander and ajwain crops, Hymenopterans were the most dominant pollinators fallowed by Dipterans, Coleopterans and Lepidopterans. As flowering stage increased the activity of pollinators also increased (30, 60 and 90%) in both coriander and ajwain. Within a day, the activity of most of the pollinating species was maximum at 10.00-11.00 h. Honey bees were the most common pollinators which were active at all intervals of observations. Among the honey bees, A. florea was the most predominant pollinator and peak activity was noticed during 13.00-14.00 h, activity of A. cerana indica was maximum during 10.00-11.00 h. The activity of all flower visitors was maximum at 10.00-11.00 h followed by 13.00-14.00 h, 16.00-17.00 h and 08.00-09.00 h of the day in both the seed spices.