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Bumblebees are efficient pollinator of various fruit and vegetable crops as compare to honeybees under protected condition as well as open conditions. The cross pollination carried out by bumblebees known as myophilly. Bumblebees have tend to forage faster than honeybees, pollinate more flowers per bee, long tongue prefers flower with long corolla tube. At low temperature and low light intensities, the foraging activities of bumblebees are more efficient and cost-effective alternate to hand/manual pollination even. They are perfect pollinator of flowers of family Solanaceae because sonication is required for pollination. Now a days, the population of bumblebees is decreasing at global level due to indiscriminate use of pesticides, loss of natural habitats, mechanization in agriculture and climate changes. The conservation techniques like modification of landscape such as promoting wild flowers and creation of niches for their hibernation, survival and reproduction etc. which provide favorable conditions to increase the bumblebees abundance, foraging behavior and their efficiency. The scientists should attempts for evaluating the pollination efficiency of bumblebees to boost the production of vegetable and fruit crops.

The present investigation was carried out on in vitro mass multiplication, larval feeding capacity, and pollination efficiency of two aphidophagous syrphids viz., Eupeodes frequens (Matsmura) and Episyrphus balteatus (De Geer) (Diptera: Syrphidae) on cabbage aphid (Brevicoryne brassicae L.) (Homoptera: Aphididae) on mustard crop under mid hill conditions. The results revealed that the incubation, larval, and pupal periods were 3.5, 12.4, and 11.9 days, respectively for E. frequens and 3.8, 13.7, and 8.8 days, for E. balteatus. Longevity of male and female was 15.2 and 17.6 days for E. frequens and 10.6 and 12.6 days for E. balteatus, respectively. When the adults were fed on different diets, adult longevity and fecundity recorded significantly maximum on 10% honey solution + fresh pollen grains. E. frequens consumed an average of 261.7 individuals of cabbage aphids per larva during total larval period, whereas the larva of E. balteatus consumed 393.6 cabbage aphids. The pollination efficiency of hoverflies on Indian mustard (Brassica juncea L.) was studied under caged conditions. It was observed that the plants pollinated by E. balteatus and E. frequens showed 55.12 and 52.97% seed set. Among the different diets, fresh pollen grains + 10% honey solutions recorded to be the best diet for mass rearing of syrphids.

The investigation was carried out in the department of plant pathology, SKN College of Agriculture, Jobner, Jaipur (Rajasthan) during Kharif, 2017 to evaluate the efficacy of indigenous materials against sclerotinia rot disease of brinjal under in vitro and in vivo conditions. The six indigenous materials i. e. neem oil, garlic extract, castor oil, cow urine, heeng powder and turmeric powder were tested by poisoned food technique against sclerotinia rot pathogen. Among six indigenous materials, extract of garlic was found most effective in inhibiting mycelial growth (69.71, 95.72 and 98.00%) of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum at 5, 10 and 15 per cent, respectively followed by neem oil (63.96, 89.64 and 92.00%) and cow-urine (59.20, 81.21 and 84.00%) over control. Heeng powder was found least effective in inhibiting mycelial growth of S. sclerotiorum over control. The study indicates that all the three concentrations (5, 10 and 15%) of garlic extract were effective in reducing the sclerotinia rot disease incidence.

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