Studies on diversity, Distribution and Relative Abundance of Insect Pollinators on Bergenia ciliata (Haw.) Sternb. and Vinca major (Linneaus) in Shimla Hills, Himalaya

Author(s): Mahender Singh Thakur, Aruna Katoch

Medicinal plants are highly valuable and most of them depend on insect pollinators for their reproduction. Therefore, it is important to study the insect pollinators of medicinal plants. The present study on diversity and distribution reveals a total of 29 insect pollinators collected on two medicinal plants i.e. Bergenia ciliata (Haw.) Sternb. and Vinca major (Linnaeus) in different localities of Shimla Hills, Himachal Pradesh, India. Of these 29 insect pollinator’s species, 8 species has been collected on Bergenia ciliata (Haw.) Sternb. belongs to 3 orders i.e. Coleoptera, Hymenoptera and Diptera. Whereas 24 species has been recorded and collected on Vinca major (L.) under four orders i.e. Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera and Diptera. Beside diversity and distribution study has also been conducted on the relative abundance studies of insect pollinators on these two medicinal plants. During this study period it has been observed that dipterans were the most abundant insect pollinators of Bergenia ciliata (Haw.) Sternb. in all the four localities i.e. Dhalli (80%), Kufri (63.41%), IGMC (60.86%) and Fagu (64%), whereas lepidopterans were the most abundant insect pollinators of Vinca major (Linnaeus) at Dhalli (60.76%), Summerhill (58.46%), Chauda Maidan (58.95%), IGMC (57.42%), Kasumpti (63.20%) and Chotta Shimla (63.06%).