Foraging behaviour of insect visitors and their effect on yield of mango var. Amrapali

Experiments were carried out at the College of Horticulture, Noorsarai (rabi, 2013) and at the Bihar Agricultural College, Sabour (rabi, 2014), on the insect visitors, peak visiting hours and their effect on yield of Amrapali variety of mango. Eleven species belonging to 3 orders, under 8 genera were observed visiting mango flowers, of which the most belonged to the Diptera and Hymenoptera. Apis mellifera was the most dominant after Musca domestica and Episyrphus balteatus. The foraging rate/flower/5 min was the highest at 1200 h, compared to at 0700 h and 1500 h. The maximum numbers of fruit setting/panicle (1.00) was with the bee pollination followed by the natural pollination (0.90), while weight/fruit/treatment was 165.75 g and yield/panicle/treatment was 215.75 g with were at par with 155.75 g and 203.25 g with the bee pollination, respectively. Thus a 233.20% increase in yield was with the crop fully left open for natural pollination, and it was followed by a 213.90% increase with bee pollination, as compared to self pollination.