Bees diversity and distribution dynamics among various agro-climatic regions of Indian Punjab

Abstract

Diversity and abundance of bees were estimated in six agro-climatic regions of an intensive agricultural state of India i.e. Punjab during the year 2020-21. Random sampling was done at various locations in all the six agro-climatic regions. Thirty sweeps of the hand insect net were made at each location. Overall, 7482 bees’ specimens were collected among which the most abundant bee species was Apis mellifera Linnaeus (12.58%), followed by Apis dorsata Fabricius (12.24%), Apis cerana Fabricius (11.61%) and Apis florea Fabricius (9.18%). The highly diverse regions with respect to number of bee species and their respective numbers were Sub-mountain Undulating (30 species, 1674 individuals) and Undulating Plain regions (29 species, 1662 individuals). The least diverse region was Western region (20 species, 743 individuals). Bombus haemorrhoidalis Smith was rare and restricted only to extreme Eastern part of the state, adjacent to hilly region, with relative abundance of 0.72 per cent. Sub-mountain Undulating and Undulating Plain regions were highly similar to each other as represented by Bray-Curtis and Jaccard’s indices. These two regions, had lower cropping intensity than other regions, provided lesser disturbed area and agro-chemical usage. Thus, these regions fulfil the utmost requirement of the native bee species i.e. good nesting place with ample food resources. Nonetheless, further studies are required to intensively investigate the area and to find possible linkage of various agricultural landscapes with bee pollinators’ community.