Vol. 11, Special Issue 11 (2022)

Author(s):
AV More, DG More, SH Gore, ND Zatale and VS Gambhire

Abstract:
Studies on safflower variety PBNS-86 revealed that the crop was visited by twelve species of insect viz., Apis dorsata, A. florea, Trigona iridipennis, Xylocopa fenestrate, Creontiades dilutus, Cheilomenes sexmaculata, Amata bicincta, Papilio demoleus, Ischiodon scutellaris, Musca domestica, one unidentified wasp from Hymenoptera and one unidentified Hover fly from Diptera. These insect species belong to five orders viz., Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hemiptera and Diptera. With respect to the preferred visit timings of the pollinators, it was observed that preferred visit time for hymenopteran pollinator was afternoon hours from 12.00 to 14.00 hrs, while the pollinators from Diptera and Hemiptera were more active in morning hours. The members of Lepidoptera order are active in the morning as well as evening hours and the coleopterans are found as only occasional visitors. It is observed that maximum temperature showed significant but negative correlation with A. florea population (r = - 0.422*). The A. dorsata showed positive significant correlation with rainfall (r = 0.517*) while it was significantly negative with maximum temperature (r = - 0.556*), minimum temperature (r = - 0.686*) and evening relative humidity (r = - 0.451*). The population of T. iridipennis showed significant but negative correlation with maximum temperature (r = - 0.679*), minimum temperature (r = - 0.573*) and evening relative humidity (r = - 0.496*). The population of P. demoleus showed negative but significant correlation with minimum temperature (r = - 0.410*). Maximum temperature (r = - 0.559*) established negative significant correlation with the population of C. sexmaculata visiting safflower. It is evident from the data that only maximum temperature (r = - 0.448*) showed significant but negative correlation with M. domestica population.