Insect pollination and relative value of honey bee pollination in strawberry, Fragaria ananassa Duch

Five cultivars of strawberry were evaluated for variation in attracting insect pollinators to the bloom and consequent increase the yield and quality of fruits.  The results obtained during 2003 revealed that none of the honey bee species was  found on the bloom and syrphid flies were the most frequent visitors of the crop (48% of total insect visitors) under open pollinated conditions.  However during 2004 in the same area Italian honey bee, Apis mellifera L constituted for 43 per cent of the visitors on the bloom followed by syrphids (39%).  The pollinators did not show preference to any particular cultivar of strawberry. The average weight of the fruit in five test cultivars varied from 6.64 to 9.48 g during 2003 and 13.7 to 14.4 g during 2004.  Significant variations were observed in fruit size (length, breadth), weight and yield in all the cultivars under bee pollination and the open pollinated crops.  The fruit yield increased in bee pollinated crop over open pollinated ones by 9.85 to 33.32 per cent during 2003 and by 26.5 to 45.8 per cent during 2004.