author(s)
Muhammad Shakeel, Mian Inayatullah, Hussain Ali

abstract
Studies on the checklist of pollinators and their relative abundance on the Canola crop was conducted at the New Developmental Farm (NDF), The University of Agriculture, Peshawar during 2009-2010. Among honey bees Apis mellifera (Linnaeus, 1758), Apis florea (Fabricius, 1787), Apis dorsata (Fabricius, 1793) and Apis cerana (Fabricius, 1793) were the major pollinators. Other pollinators included Syrphid flies Episyrphus balteatus (De Geer, 1776), Syrphus ribesii (Linnaeus, 1758), Eristalis tenax (Linnaeus, 1758), Eristalinus aeneus (Scopoli, 1763) and Bumble bees Bombus spp. (Latreille, 1802). The abundance of different insect pollinator species were recorded on two canola varieties (‘Ganyou’ in which pollen viability and germination are adversely affected by soil salinity, and ‘Oscar’ that is more tolerant of soil salinity) on different dates at different day timings. In early days of the data recorded the cultivar Oscar attracted more insects as compared to Ganyou cultivar of Canola crop. Generally no significant difference was recorded between the two cultivars in attracting different pollinator species, whereas significant difference was recorded between frequency of pollinator visitation to both cultivars Oscar and Ganyou during morning and afternoon times.