Role of entomophilous pollinators’ abundance and diversity in yield improvement of sesame

The crop was planted with two treatments viz., open pollination and caged plants. Twenty different pollinator species, belonging to 12 families and four orders (Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, and Lepidoptera), were observed visiting the inflorescence of sesame in open pollinated plots. The abundance of Hymenopterous insects was maximum (73.94%), followed by Diptera (21.23%), Lepidoptera (2.60%) and Coleoptera (2.24%). The Hymenoptera comprised of eleven species belonging to four families, Diptera contained four species from three families, Lepidoptera contained three species from three families while Coleoptera had two species belonging to two families. The most frequent insect pollinator was Apis mellifera followed by Apis cerana, Megachile lanata and Apis dorsata. Peaks of foraging activity of all the pollinators were mainly observed at 1100 h followed by 0800 and 1400 h. Maximum number of capsules per plant (94.86 ± 0.75), seeds per capsule (62.16 ± 0.27), test weight (3.54 ± 0.05 g) and seed yield (4.68 q/ha) were recorded with open pollination in comparison to caged plants.