Comparison of wild honeybees in the pollination of strawberries in Bahawalpur, Pakistan

Abstract

The wild honeybees, Apis dorsata Fabricius, 1793 and Apis florea Fabricius, 1787 constitute a large proportion of pollinators’ abundance on most crop species in Punjab, Pakistan. In the present study, we studied the foraging behavior of both the honeybee species and their comparative role in the reproductive performance of the strawberry at the research farm of The Islamia University of Bahawalpur. Both the species comprised 53% of the total pollinators’ abundance. Apis florea had high visitation frequency (0.449±0.03 individuals per 120 seconds) than A. dorsata (0.211±0.02). The activity of A. florea was the maximum at 12:00 pm while A. dorsata remained active in low abundance throughout the day. Apis florea exhibited a higher stay time but a lower visitation rate than A. dorsata. Apis dorsata proved to be an effective pollinator of the strawberry rather than A. florea in terms of fruit length, weight and diameter. There is a need to conserve wild honeybees under the current scenario of anthropogenic land use changes and intensification in agriculture.