author(s)
Venkatesh Hosamani, Reddy MS, Venkateshalu, Hanumanthaswamy BC, Lingamurthi KR, Ravikumar B and Ashoka N

abstract
Field studies were conducted at Benakanakonda village near by Krishi Vigyana Kendra (KVK), Hanumanamatti, Haveri. To document the diversity and abundance of insect pollinators on onion flowers. Totally, there were 666.17 pollinators visiting the onion plot at different times in a day. Among them, Hymenopterans contributed 87.79 per cent (83.55 pollinators), followed by Dipterans 8.62 per cent (8.20 pollinators), Lepidopterans 1.91 per cent (1.82 pollinators) and others 1.66 per cent (1.59 pollinators). Four species of honey bees belonging to Apidae constituted the largest group of pollinators visiting the onion crop. For the dominant group the onion crop served as a source of both pollen and nectar followed by twelve other families of insect pollinator visited the onion crop and in the absence of dominant pollinators affected the pollination of onion crop. The stay time in term of seconds /umbel varied from 2.9 in A. dorsata to 12.5 in A. florae. The stay time appeared to be conversely related to the bee size, for instance, A dorsata a larger bee could carry at a time higher amounts of nectar and pollen. A. florae, a smaller bee had more stay-time but removed only small quantity of nectar and pollen from the umbels of onion.