Vol. 7, Issue 9, Part H (2025)

The present study was conducted to evaluate the foraging behaviour of stingless bees on five cucurbitaceous crops sponge gourd (Luffa aegyptiaca), bitter gourd (Momordica charantia), spine gourd (Momordica dioica), ridge gourd (Luffa acutangula) and cucumber (Cucumis sativus) under field conditions during the Kharif season of 2024-2025 at the Instructional Farm of the Vegetable Improvement Scheme (VIS), CES Wakawali, Dapoli. The objective was to assess crop-wise and time-wise variations in three key parameters of bee foraging behaviour: diurnal activity, foraging rate and floral handling time. Diurnal foraging activity was quantified as the number of stingless bees visiting 20 flowers per 5 minutes across five time intervals. Results revealed peak activity at 10:00 h with an average of 8.58 bees, while the lowest visitation was recorded at 16:00 h (3.36 bees). Bitter gourd showed the highest crop-wise visitation rate (6.69 bees), whereas spine gourd had the lowest (4.63 bees). Foraging rate, measured as the number of flowers visited per minute, was highest at 10:00 h (2.29 flowers/min) and lowest at 14:00 h (1.87 flowers/min). Cucumber recorded the highest average foraging rate (2.40 flowers/min) and bitter gourd the lowest (1.62 flowers/min). Handling time per flower peaked at 12:00 h (35.62 seconds) and was lowest at 16:00 h (29.20 seconds), with bitter gourd showing the longest average handling time (43.14 seconds) and cucumber the shortest (25.82 seconds). These findings demonstrate that both crop species and time of day significantly influence the foraging dynamics of stingless bees, which has implications for pollination management in cucurbitaceous crops.