Quantitative studies concerning total and differential haemocyte counts and abnormalities were performed under laboratory conditions for larvae, pupae and adults collected from a wild Apis dorsata colony. Haemolymph samples were observed immediately, thirty and sixty minutes after field recommended concentration exposure of five different insecticides. Total haemocyte counts were significantly higher for larvae and pupae but less for adult bees, however, differential haemocyte counts insignificantly different. Exposure of insecticides showed variable response for tested insecticides with immediate increased change with ethofenprox, diafenthiuron and imidacloprid but decreased for all tested insecticides after sixty minutes. For differential haemocyte counts, plasmatocytes and granulocytes increased with exposure of insecticides. Immune response of haemocytes against insecticides showed different degrees of abnormalities like agglutination, denucleation and cell shape distortion. Such studies may help in possible identification of insect defense mechanisms against their exposure to external hazards for instance insecticide exposure.

To discover the pollinator community of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) and different aspects of behavior, activity and pollination effect of Apis and non Apis bees, an experiment was performed at the research farm of Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The insect pollinator community was composed of eighteen species belonging to seven families and three insect orders. Apis mellifera and Xylocopa fenestrata were the most frequent visitors comprising 44% and 14% with maximum activity observed during early day hours.Visitation frequency of these two pollinators significantly varied at early and late observation times with no significant differences observed during the mid-day. The study also covered other aspects including visitation rate and duration of a single visit on flower heads. These also contributed significantly in increase of head diameter, total number of seeds per head, filled seeds, seed filling percentage and seed weight when compared with self-pollination.Presence of wild pollinators with commercial bee keepers can help in increase of crop yields and their good seed potential due to improvement of crossing of gene pool.

Greenhouse tomato production is a growing business worldwide, and it is strongly promoted by bumblebee pollination. Although there are over 250 bumblebee species worldwide, very few species have been reared successfully for greenhouse tomato pollination. Those successfully managed species, especially Bombus terrestris, are shipped around the world for commercial use. However, managed bumblebees are known to escape greenhouse facilities, have established local populations, spread disease to local bumblebees, and are blamed for the declines of some indigenous bee species. An alternative to shipping exotic bumblebees around the world is to develop local species for greenhouse pollination. Such an approach has the dual benefits of creating a new industry of insect rearing while reducing threats to local bee communities. In this study, we successfully reared Bombus haemorrhoidalis, which is the most common bumblebee species in Northern Pakistan, in a laboratory and compared its effectiveness as a tomato pollinator with that of commercial B. terrestris in a greenhouse. We found that the effectiveness of B. haemorrhoidalis in tomato pollination in a greenhouse is very similar to that of B. terrestris when it comes to the fruit size, number of seeds, and fruit weight. Our study provides an example of how to rear a native bumblebee species to pollinate local crops, which is a method that could potentially substitute the importation of non-ingenious bumblebees.

Crop seeds are generally stored for next crop season and bear losses from vertebrate and invertebrate pests. In invertebrates, stored grain insect pests are mainly responsible for loss in weight and viability issues. Five sorghum varieties, viz. RS-29, Rari-S-4, Rari-SV-10, SPV-462 and Johar-1 were compared for infestation of Sitotroga cerealella under laboratory and semi-field conditions. RS-29 was found to be the most resistant variety and Johar-1 to be the most susceptible when losses were observed after 30, 60 and 90 days of infestation. Maximum infestation and weight loss was observed in Johar-1 (28%). Germination percentage was found to be decreased to 65% in RS-29 and 47% in Johar-1 in laboratory, and 60% in RS-1 and 43% in Johar-1 under semi-field conditions. Possibilities to decrease these losses have been discussed for effective management of stored grain pest losses.