Impact of Pollinator Insects Associated with Cucumber Fruit Set

Abstract

Background: Cucumber is one of the popular vegetables of the cultivated cucurbits. Different insect species harbored with cucumber plant and they influence on its production, but little have been studied in Bangladesh. This study investigated the abundance of the insect species and the impact of insect pollinators on cucumber yield. Methods: Investigation was conducted in summer and rainy seasons at Gazipur, Bangladesh. Insects were collected and categorized as pest, predator, pollinator and casual visitor. Occurrence of the insects at different hours of the day and impact of supplemented insect pollinators on fruit and seed set compared to natural and hand pollination were studied. Result: In total thirty species of insects were found with cucumber plants and their relative abundances ranged from 0.4 to 13.7%. We found ten species of insects as pest, ten species as predator, four species as pollinator and six species as casual visitor. The red pumpkin beetle, epilachna beetle and fruit fly were found as the major pests. The red pumpkin beetle revealed the top ranks among the insects and the highest abundance of the insects occurred at 09:00 h of the day. Supplemented insect pollinators revealed higher yield, which indicated the significant for conserving insect pollinators.