Insects Pollinators of Fruit and Berry Crops Distributed In Ukraine (On the Example of the Rosacea Family)

Abstract

Global pollination crisis for agricultural and natural ecosystems has emerged during the last decades. Man gets a great amount of food from entomophilous plants. That is why preservation and protection of anthophilic species of insects as the main agents of pollination is currently an urgent problem. Rosaceae is among the leading plant families in terms of the number of species in Ukraine. Rosaceae occupies top places in terms of the number of species in the certain regions of the country: the Black Sea region – VI - VII, Buko-vyna - III, the Crimea - V. Rosaceae species are of great national economic importance and are the basis of fruit and berry production in Ukraine. The issue of economic importance has been studied. It has been shown that the fifth part of the family belongs to honey plants. The authors conducted the analysis of literature sources over the past 20 years regarding the forms and ways of pollination of entomophilous species of the Rosaceae family included in the "State Register of Plant Varieties Suitable for Distribution in Ukraine" as of 2022. According to the collected information, we developed a database. We complied the list of insects as pollinating agents for entomophilous species of the Rosaceae family, included in the State Register. The list of 15 species and 2 hybrids belonging to 8 genera and three subfamilies was developed. For them, the predominance of cross-pollination and the presence of a complex combined variant are shown. The analysis of the data on insects which pollinate plant species of the Rosaceae family reflected in the literary made it possible to single out the main groups of pollinating agents: Hymenoptera, Diptera, Coleoptera, and Lepidoptera. The melitophily as the predominant way of pollination with honey bee Apis mellifera L. as the universal agent has been proved. However, the species composition of the associated anthophilic complex is fragmentarily reflected in the available literature and requires further research.