2024, Vol. 7, Special Issue 2

author(s)
Manju Devi, Prem Lal Sharma, Geeta Verma, Kiran Rana and Meena Thakur

abstract
A study was conducted to investigate the diversity and quantity of insect pollinators in the apple orchards of Seraj valley, HP. The current study comprised 56 insect pollinator species from 25 families, grouped into eight orders: Hymenoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera, Coleopteran, Hemiptera, Neuroptera, Thysanoptera, and Orthoptera. Overall, the study region had the highest abundance of 1127 individuals (Apis cerana, Apis mellifera, and Ceratina sp.), accounting for 76% of the family contribution. The most prevalent orders were Hymenoptera, Diptera, and Lepidoptera, with 18, 17, and 11 species, respectively, whereas Hemiptera, Thysanoptera, and Neuroptera had only one species in each. Pollinator diversity did not differ significantly amongst species caught using sweep net methods. Muscidae has the highest pollinator diversity (0.59/5 sweeps), followed by Halictidae (0.52/5 sweeps), Syrphidae (0.51/5 sweeps), and Bibionidae (0.30/5 sweeps). The family apidae (Apis mellifera and Apis cerana) was found to be the most prominent in apple orchards (4.08/100 flowers), followed by the families syrphidae (3.41/100 flowers), halictidae (1.70), and tephritidae (1.51/100 flowers). Insect visitors sampled using several sampling methods demonstrated that for sampling pollinator diversity, all methods must be used together because no single method is completely reliable.