Toxicity of Insecticides to Pollinators in Cucumber Vis-À-Vis Tolerant Gut Microbiota of Apis dorsata Fabricius

The toxicity of insecticides to pollinators visiting cucumber flowers was studied wherein spinosad, fipronil and flonicamid exhibited the higher activity of pollinators validating their relatively safer nature towards pollinators while, the lower activity was observed in plots treated with imidacloprid, spiromesifen, chlorantraniliprole as well as cypermethrin which confirmed their more toxicity to pollinators. Total fifteen bacterial isolates were identified from the hind gut of giant honey bee, Apis dorsata L. which consisted five genera viz., Bacillus sp., Klebsiella sp., Citrobacter sp., Providencia sp. and Enterobacter sp. Some of the bacterial isolates exhibited significant growth in the presence of insecticides.