Journal of Environmental and Agricultural Sciences (JEAS). Rehman et al., 2020. Volume 22(3): 1-6
Open Access – Research Article
Abundance of Autumn Bees and their Natural Enemies in Sub-Tropical Bahawalpur, Pakistan
Aziz-Ur-Rehman 1, Asif Sajjad 1,*, Waseem Akram 1, Ammad Ahmad 1
1 Department of Entomology, University College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, The Islamia University, Bahawalpur, Pakistan
Abstract:Â Autumn season in Pakistan lasts from October to November. During these months most of the bees decline in their populations, and by the end of November, they start getting into hibernation to endure upcoming winter. Present study was carried out to investigate the abundance of different ground and cavity-nesting bees of the autumn season at the Baghdad-ul-Jadeed campus of the Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan during 2019. The population of their natural enemies (predatory and parasitic wasps and cleptoparasitic cuckoo bees) and their floral host plants were also recorded. A total of ten bee species (including three cleptoparasitic cuckoo bees) and nine predatory or parasitic wasp species were recorded, however; bees were more abundant than wasps. Ground-nesting bees comprised 90.09% of total bee abundance. Wasps were higher in abundance than cleptoparasitic cuckoo bees. A cavity and a soil-nesting bee, i.e. Ceratina sp. and Pseudapis sp.1, respectively visited the maximum number of plant species. The maximum number of bee species visited Leucaena leucocephala, Trianthema portulacastrum and Carthamus oxyacantha. Current study gives a baseline for future conservation and pollination management programs in the region.
Keywords: native bees, ground-nesting, cavity-nesting, cuckoo bees, floral sources.
*Corresponding author: Asif Sajjad: asifbinsajjad@gmail.com
Cite this article as: Rehman, A.U., A. Sajjad, W. Akram and A. Ahmad. 2020. Abundance of autumn bees and their natural enemies in sub-tropical Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Journal of Environmental & Agricultural Sciences. 22(3): 1-6. [Abstract] [View Full-Text] [Citations]
Copyright © Rehman et al., 2020. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium provided the original author and source are appropriately cited and credited.
.
Similar Articles Published in JEAS