Studies on flora of gagron fort jhalawar and its environs with special reference to ecotourism

Abstract

Bees are important pollinators of food and non-food crops and their abundance newlineand diversity in an area is integral for the ecosystem in whole. Also specific type of bees newlineis source of products like honey and wax. Bees are vivacious creatures which fascinate newlineanyone studying their behavior in general and the diversity in particular. Their newlinecontribution to the service of pollination cannot be quantized. They have attracted the newlinemankind through their sights and odour, and the fieldwork ambience contributes to the newlineresearcher. Apart from their practical importance people have been drawn to the study of newlinebees since the Mesolithic times. At least from the time of Aristotle the biology of bee has newlinebeen studied. Although most of the earlier records are for the honey bee the focus has newlinegradually widened to incorporate the diverse groups of bee which may be semi-social, newlinesubsocial or quasisocial. The reduction in the number of bee in a habitat drastically newlineaffects the flora and in turns the herbivore and the other elements of the food chain. Thus newlinethe conservation of habitat and the wilderness depends on the diversity and abundance of newlinebees indirectly. Cultivated plants, garden flowers, most fruits, many fiber crops and major newlineforage crops are pollinated through bees. Bees visit flower for pollen and nector and are newlineintentional pollinators with the ability to recognize flowers and most important insects to newlinecontribute in the process of pollination having a mutalistic association with flowering newlineplants. The present study aimed to know the diversity of Bees which belong to the newlineSuperfamily Apoidea of the order Hymenoptera in the class Insecta of the specified area newlinethat is tehsil Ladpura of the southeastern district Kota of the state of Rajasthan in India. newlineExtensive sampling of the bees during a course of three years in different seasons and newlinelocations of the study area incorporating various habitats within the region was carried newlineout to know the diversity of the bee fauna. newline newline