Background. Up to 75% of crop species benefit at least to some degree from animal pollination for fruit or seed set and yield. However, basic information on the level of pollinator dependence and pollinator contribution to yield is lacking for many crops. Even less is known about how insect pollination affects crop quality. Given that habitat loss and agricultural intensification are known to d...

Agroecosystems are often impoverished ecosystems, but they can host diverse communities of insects which provide ecosystem services. Specifically, crops may benefit from insect pollinators that increase their quantity and quality yields. Basic knowledge is still needed regarding the identity, diversity, abundance, ecology in many parts world, especially low middle-income countries. In this stud...

Climate change can threaten the reproductive success of plants, both directly, through physiological damage during increasingly extreme weather events, and indirectly, through disruption of plant-pollinator interactions. To explore how plant-pollinator interactions are modified by extreme weather, we exposed faba bean (Vicia faba) plants to elevated temperature for 5 d during flowering, simulat...

BACKGROUND In plants, reproductive success is largely determined by the composition of pollen (i.e., self-pollen and outcross-pollen from near and distant pollen-donors) transported as a result of pollinator foraging behavior (e.g., pollen carryover). However, little evidence is available on how and to what extent the pollen carryover affects the pollen-donor composition and on which insect tax...

Insect pollination underpins apple production but the extent to which different pollinator guilds supply this service, particularly across different apple varieties, is unknown. Such information is essential if appropriate orchard management practices are to be targeted and proportional to the potential benefits pollinator species may provide. Here we use a novel combination of pollinator effec...

Hummingbirds are very distinctive in their form and behavior, the evolution of which is tightly connected to the evolution of their primary source of energy - floral nectar. About forty million years ago, the practical use of this dense fuel, available only in widely-dispersed, insect-sized aliquots - it was originally intended for insect pollinators - presented a severe test to the avian baupl...

Field experiment was conducted at CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar during 2009-10 to investigate the diversity and abundance of insect pollinators on Allium cepa L. and correlate their incidence in relation to the abiotic environmental factors. Hymenopterans were found to be the most abundant (60%) followed by Lepidoptera, Diptera and Coleoptera. Variation in abundance was recorded ov...