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First record of Epuraea motschulskyi as a potential pollinator of pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.): biosystematics, molecular characterization, and pollination efficiency

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Abstract

Pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.) is an economically important dioecious vegetable crop having separate plants growing male and female flowers. Cross-pollination is imperative for its fruit settings and insects play a pivotal role in this. Although a nitidulid beetle was reported to be a primary pollinator in pointed gourd, its species identification and validation were needed to enhance the fruit production. The beetles collected from the pointed gourd have revealed presence of abundant round or spheroidal, trizonopororate, sticky pointed gourd pollens. Further, role of beetle was validated in farmers field where no fruit set was recorded when beetle’s visit was curtailed. Twenty adult beetles were artificially released into a caged pot, and the maximum fruit setting (30.43%) indicated its potential role in pointed gourd pollination in vegetable ecosystem. Beetle-pollinated fruits had higher fruit length (6.88 cm), width (2.83 cm), fruit weight (22.63 g), and lesser number of seeds (16.75) than the hand-pollinated fruits (6.21 cm, 2.77 cm, 19.41 g, and 21.75 numbers, respectively). The morphological and molecular analysis identified the species as Epuraea motschulskyi and the study hereby reports for the first time that E. motschulskyi is the primary pollinator in pointed gourd. The study also suggests that the release and protection of the beetle in pointed gourd field would lead to enhanced fruit set.

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Acknowledgements

Authors are thankful to Mr. Deepak Khushwaha, former SRF and Dr. A. B. Rai, Former Head, Division of Crop Protection for assistance during the experiment at IIVR research plots.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICAR-Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, 221305, India

    Jaydeep Halder, Suhas Gorakh Karkute, Pradip Karmakar, Achuit Kumar Singh, Tribhuvan Chaubey & Tusar Kanti Behera

  2. Zoological Survey of India, New Alipore, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700053, India

    Jhikmik Dasgupta

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  1. Jaydeep Halder
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  2. Suhas Gorakh Karkute
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  3. Jhikmik Dasgupta
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  4. Pradip Karmakar
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  6. Tribhuvan Chaubey
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Jaydeep Halder; Methodology (at IIVR farm and validation at farmers’ field, biosafety/Toxicological data): Jaydeep Halder; Morpho-Taxonomy of the Epuraea: Jhikmik Dasgupta; Insect DNA barcoding and sequencing: Suhas Karkute and Achuit Kumar Singh; Nitulid Phylogenetic tree: Suhas Karkute; Pollen morphology study: Jaydeep Halder and Pradip Karmakar; Pointed gourd pollen photography: Achuit Kumar Singh; Writing, reviewing, and editing of the manuscript: Jaydeep Halder, Suhas Karkute, T Chaubey, and Tushar Kanti Behera.

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Correspondence to Jaydeep Halder.

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Halder, J., Karkute, S.G., Dasgupta, J. et al. First record of Epuraea motschulskyi as a potential pollinator of pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.): biosystematics, molecular characterization, and pollination efficiency. Arthropod-Plant Interactions (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-024-10052-x

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