Stingless bee, Tetragonula iridipennis as a pollinator in Bell pepper, Capsicum annum under protected cultivation

Abstract

Abstract Stingless bees are common visitor to flowering plants in the tropics, and play a vital role as a pollinator both in open and closed environment. The present study was carried out to know the efficiency of stingless bee, Tetragonula iridipennis Smith on bell pepper, Capsicum annum cultivated under greenhouses during two seasons, summer (2021) and winter (2021-2022). At the time of flower initiation three stingless bee colonies were introduced inside the greenhouse. The peak activity of outgoing foragers recorded at 11.00 h to 12.00 h (12.90 bees/m2/10 min) during summer. In winter, activity of bees was maximum at 11:00 h to 12:00 h (11.35 bees/m2/10 min). The floral handling time of bees on flower in both the seasons, irrespective of the hours in a day, the maximum flower handling time was observed in the afternoon hours (44.60 s/flower) compared to forenoon hours (20.57 s/flower). Even in often cross pollinated bell pepper significant increase in number of fruits/plant (10.40 and 8.98), percentage of fruit set (90.04 % and 81.86 %), yield/plant (0.71 g and 0.46 g), fruit length (7.38 mm and 6.50 mm), fruit girth (22.86 mm and 19.43 mm), fruit weight (98.38 g and 83.08 g), TSS (5.20 % and 4.52 %), ascorbic content (93.64 mg/100 g and 89.15 mg/100 g) and moisture content (95.37 % and 40.93 %) was recorded between bee pollinated and control plots, respectively.