Diversity of insect foragers with reference to foraging behaviour of Asian honey bee, Apis cerana F. on sesamum, Sesamum indicum L.

The diversity of insect foragers and foraging behaviour of Apis cerana on Sesamum indicum were recorded, amongst foragers Apis cerana was the most dominant forager (32.66%) followed by Apis dorsata (26.54%), Xylocopa fenestrata (7.48%), Vespa cincta (6.12%), Coccinella septempunctata (6.12%), Musca domestica (6.12%), Apis florea (4.76%) and Xylocopa leucothorax (4.08%). Besides these, other insect foragers found in less numbers were Chalicodoma cephalotes (2.04%), Episyrphous belteatus (2.04%), Pieris rapae (2.04%). The study on foraging behaviour of Apis cerana revealed that 0900-1000 hours was the peak period of visit on sesamum flower. The number of Apis cerana per square meter per minute was recorded to be maximum (9.75 ± 0.15) during 0900-1000 hours and minimum (0.75 ± 0.19) during 1600–1700 hours. The number of flowers visited per minute was maximum (11.65 ± 0.15) in between 0500-0600 hours and minimum 4.12 ± 0.11 per minute at 1600–1700 hours of the day. The maximum time spent per flower was recorded to be 6.83 ± 0.10 seconds during 0900-1000 hours and minimum being 3.87 ± 0.06 seconds during 1600–1700 hours of the day. Maximum pollen load was found to be 8.34 ± 0.14 mg during 0900-1000 hours while minimum to be 2.31 ± 0.08 mg during 1500–1600 hours of the day. Bright sunshine hours and temperature showed positive correlation whereas rainfall and relative humidity showed negative correlation with foraging behaviour of Apis cerana.