Effect Of Honeybee And Other Pollinating Insects On The Yield Of Some Cucurbit Vegetable Plants

Cucurbit crops i.e squash ( Cucurbita Pepo L. ), cucumber ( Cucumis Sativus L. ) and watermelon ( Citrullus Lanatus L. ) are known to be one of the oldest puplic man food differ widely in use, squash for cooked vegetable, cucumber for salad and pickles and watermelon for desert . These crops thrive in wide variety of soils, especilly the lighter types ( sandy or new reclaimed lands ). Insect pollination is known to increase the productivity of field and horticultural crops, assuring self - pollination ( Pazy, 1984 ) and cross pollination ( Skreptsova, 1964 ; Adierz, 1966 and Lord, 1985 ) with its advantage such as producing larger perfectly shaped fruits, including a greater proportion of early flowers to set fruit, promotimg hybird vigor and avoiding pests attack pest control coats.from this stand point, the present work aimed to Determine insect visitors / pollinators of three cucrbit crops, i.e squash, cucumber and watermelon with their seasonal and daily activites as affected by some climatic factors. also, the effect of some extrensic factors including day temperature and relative humidity, sugar content and ph of nectar on nectar and pollen gathering activity of honey bee workers visiting three squash cultivars was taken in account.