Genetic Divergents and Phylogenetic Relationship of Honeybee Population in Mizoram

Abstract

Insects belonging to Class Insecta are one of the most interesting and most studied organisms. With a wide range of species diversity, they play important roles in the ecosystem as herbivores, pollinators, parasitoids (Lasalle and Gauld, 1993). The worldwide agricultural production value of insect pollination is estimated to be 153 billion, accounting 9.5 percent of the world agricultural production value used for human food (Gallai et al., 2009). In India, approximately 80 per cent crop plants depend on insect pollination. Among insects, the Hymenopterans, especially the bees, are the most effective pollinators of crops and flowering plants, responsible for pollination in about 70 percent of the world’s cultivated crops (Balachandran et al., 2014). Bees pollinate 16 percent of the total of 0.25 million plant species as well as non agriculture, forest and ornamental plants (Thakur, 2012