Abstract
This study was conducted to understand the effect of abiotic factors on the foraging
behavior of two native honeybee species (Apis dorsata and A. florea) andits ultimate
impact on reproductive success of Brassica napus L. Foraging behavior of honeybees
was studied in terms of visitation rate, visitation frequency, stay time on flower, stigma
contact events, nectar robbing and pollen grain deposition on stigma. Simple linear
regression model was used to find relationship between foraging behavior parameters
and abiotic factors including ambient temperature, light intensity, wind speed and
relative humidity. The results showed that A. dorsata had statistically higher visitation
rate (54.23±1.307 flowers/300 seconds), number of stigma contact events (0.98±0.008)
and pollen deposition (287.72±6.58 pollens) than A. florea i.e. 22.65±0.808 flower/300
seconds, 0.51±0.032 events and 154.83±7.83 pollens, respectively. The linear
regression analysis showed that the stay time and nectar robbing of A. dorsata was not
affected by any of the abiotic factors. Visitation frequency had negative relationship
with all the abiotic factors. Stigma contact time decreased with the increase in
temperature and increased with the increase in light intensity. In case of A. florea,
stigma contact time had no relationship with any of the abiotic factor. Visitation rate
and stay time were affected by light intensity. However, the value of R2 did not exceed
0.25 in all these significant relationships. Nectar robbing events increased with the
increase in relative humidity and decreased with the increase in wind speed. Apis
dorsata was more efficient pollinator of B. napus than A. florea in terms of seed weight
per pod and germination percentage.
Muhammad Aslam Farooqi, Muhammad Naveed Aslam, Asif Sajjad, Waseem Akram, Aneeqa Maqsood. (2021) Impact of abiotic factors on the foraging behavior of two honeybee species on canola in Bahawalpur, Punjab-Pakistan, Asian Journal of Agriculture and Biology, Volume-09, Issue-1.
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