STUDY ON THE DIVERSITY OF INSECT FORAGERS AND POLLINATION EFFECT ON INDIAN JUJUBE (Ziziphus mauritiana) YIELD

Abstract

An experiment was carried out at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh during the period from September, 2022 to February, 2023 to know the diversity of insect foragers and pollination effect on Indian jujube (Ziziphus mauritiana) yield. Five treatments viz., without netting, netting with the net of .5mm hole, netting with the net of 2mm hole, netting with the net of 3mm hole and netting with the net of 5mm hole were included in this study. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replications. The survey found sixteen insect species visiting Indian jujube plants. These insects are from the order hymenoptera, diptera, hemiptera, and coleoptera. Hymenopterans dominated throughout the season. Apis cerana (29.06%) was the most frequent visitor followed by A. florea A. dorsata (6.42%) and A. mellifera . A. cerana spent 4.47 seconds per bloom. A. cerana and A. mellifera had the highest ( ) and lowest ( ) mean foraging rates respectively. The diversity index for genus was found ( ) and for species ( ) respectively. The cyme bears hermaphrodite and male flower at the ratio of ( ). Cyme without netting set the highest (3.50±0.29) fruit. Netting with the net of .5mm hole and netting with the net of 2mm hole did not set any fruit. Without netting, yield reached 40.7 kg/plant which was highly significant from rest of the treatments. From this study it is evident that the role of pollinators on Indian jujube is very significant.