576| © www.globalsciencepg.org Biolife | 2015 | Vol 3 | Issue 2 B I O L I F E R E S E A R C H A R T I C L E Pollinating insects of some economically important plants of Kolhapur region, India T. V. Sathe 1 and Anna Gophane 2 1-2 Department of Zoology Shivaji University, Kolhapur 416 004 India *Email: profdrtvsathe@rediffmail.com ABSTRACT The area of pollinator dependant crops is increasing disproportionately and crop pollinators are under threat of pesticides and other chemicals used in agriculture farming. Therefore, there is need to make the survey of pollinating insects from Kolhapur region of India since this area is agriculturally very sound which contain very rich biodiversity. A total of 30 species of pollinating insect belonging to the five orders viz. Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera and Coleoptera have been reported. Maximum pollinating visits have been made by Apis dorsata and least by Chrysotoxum sp. on crop plants in the region. The order of dominant pollinator was Hymenptera> Lepidoptera> Diptera>Coleoptera>Thysanoptera. Keywords- Pollinating insects, Economic plants, Kolhapur, India. INTRODUCTION Kolhapur is situated between 15º to 17º North latitude and 73º to 74º East longitude with an average rain fall 1100 mm covered mainly by monsoon with temperature range 16-38ºC. Western Ghats, world’s biodiversity hotspot is also located in Kolhapur region. Therefore, the region is recognised as biodiversity rich area for both plants and animals. Kolhapur region of India is also visualized as best agricultural zone. Thus, it is admixture of forestry and agriculture. For conservation, protection and utilization of biodiversity of economically important crop plants pollination through insect is effective source. The value of insect pollination for worldwide agriculture production is estimated at €153 billion, which represents 9.5% of the value of the world agricultural production used for human food in 2005 (Klein et al., 2007; Gallai et al., 2009). As estimated, 62% of all flowering plants may be suffering reduced generation from seed as a result of pollinator scarcity (Burd, 1994). The area cultivated with pollinator dependent crops has increased disproportionately over the last decades, suggesting that the need for pollination services will greatly increase the near future (Airen and Harder, 2009). Review of literature indicates that Anand (1926), Faegri and van der Piji (1979), Thien (1980), Ananthakrishnan et al. (1981), Ananthakrishnan (1982), Ananthakrishnan and Gopinathan (1986), Kirk (1988), Allen et al. (1998), Hogendoorn et al. (2006), Slaa et al. (2006), Klein et al. (2007), Gallai et al. (2009), Aizen and Harder (2009), Basu et al. (2011), Sathe (2010), Sathe and Shinde (2006), Ghosh and Jana (2013), Sushil et al. (2013), Jothimani et al. (2014), Duara (2014), Duara and Khalita (2014), Sunitadevi et al. (2014), Sharmah et al. (2015) worked on insect pollination. MATERIAL AND METHODS Intensive field visits were made in Kolhapur region of India both from plain and forest ecosystems at weekly interval from 8.00 AM to 6.00 PM during the years 2013-2014 for noting pollination by insects on AN INTERNATIONAL QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF BIOLOGY & LIFE SCIENCES 3(3):576-582 ISSN (online): 2320-4257 www.biolifejournals.com How to cite this article: T. V. Sathe and Anna Gophane. (2015). Pollinating insects of some economically important plants of Kolhapur region, India. Biolife, 3(3), pp 576-582. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7272837 Received: 3 July 2015; Accepted; 17 August 2015; Available online : 2 September 2015