Entomophily: Insect Pollinators. 2018. illus. 496 p. gr8vo. Hardcover.

Summary

Pollination is an act of transfer of viable pollen grains from the male anther of flower to the female stigma. Pollination is essential for the sexual reproduction o the flowering plants, which is a natural process of the crops for seed production. Insect pollinators form an important component of wild terrestrial as well as man made agro-ecosystems. They serve an essential ecological service of sustainin the plant biodiversity on the Earth Planet through pollination of the species which are either self-unfertile or unisexual. As per the global estimate, there are abou 1850,000 known species of the animals in all the ecosystems, and possibly as many as 200,000 species act as pollinators of the estimated about 250,000 species of flowering plants. These animal pollinators are known to affect 35% of the world's crop production, increasing outputs of about 75% leading food crop worldwide. However, majority of these pollinators are insects, but nearly 1,501 species of birds and mammals have also been reported to visit flowers and may transfer pollen between them. Besides birds and bats, some other mammals which are the most frequent visitors, include monkeys, lemurs, squirrels, rodents and possums. Among the insect pollinators, bees are mportnat pollinators.

Of 115 primary food crops species identified globally, 87 species require some level of animal pollination but the magnitude of the direct impact of pollination is the subject of controversy. At least 60% of global food production comes from plant species that do not require animal pollination (e.g. cereals), while 5% of production comes from crops with unknown pollinator dependency. The area covered by pollinator-dependent crops has increased by more than 300% during the past 50 years. The major crops benefited by insect pollination include apple, coffee, cardamom, citrus, guava, litchi, manim seeds, passion fruit, cucurbits, tomato, onion, carrot etc. In spite of such commendable and accredited credentials, the contribution of these tiny creatures which labour hard to transfer pollen loads across the flowers, more often not go unnoticed and unacknowledged. This is mainly because, pollination process is taken for granted and it is reflected in the fact that pollinators are considered as 'valuable input' of agriculture.

CONTENTS: Foreword/ Preface / Introduction / Pollination: Biology, Types and Importance 7Entomophily: History and Evolution Rewards / Faunal Diversity of Insect & Non-Insect Pollinators / Pollination Syndrome and Foraging Ecology of Insect pollinators / Insect Pollinators of Fruit, Vegetable and Plantation Crops / Insect Pollinators of Oilseeds, Pulses, Fibre, Forage and Cereal crops/ Honeybees: Most Efficient Pollinators & Managed Crop Pollination / Soil Microbes, Plant and Pollinator Interactions / Threats to Insect Pollinators /Climate Change: Impact on Insect Pollinators/ Pesticides, Pollution and Insect Pollinators / Impact of GM Crops on Insect Pollinators / Conservation of Insect Pollinators / Summary / Chapter References