Chayote, Sechium edule (Swartz) is cultivated throughout tropical and subtropical regions of the world as an important vegetable crop. The chayote flowers are monoecious, produce separate male and female flowers at different internodes within the same plant. Chayote crop relies on pollinators, mainly bees and other insects like butterflies, wasps and beetles for successful fruit production. The reduction in the service provided by the pollinators results in low fruit set and inferior quality of fruits. Many domesticated bee colonies are required to provide complete pollination services if native pollinators are deficient in Chayote cropping system. An experiment was conducted in 2024 at the farmers' field at Karumandurai in Salem district to compare the foraging activity and pollination efficiency of native dominant pollinators and domesticated pollinators. The results revealed that the foraging activity of Apis cerana indica (Fabricius) began at 0600 hr and ceased by 1400 hr. Tetragonula iridipennis (Smith) commences foraging at 0800 hr and stops it by 1500 hr. T. iridipennis spent an average of 26.2 sec in male flowers and 166.0 sec in female flowers, while A. cerana indica spent less time per flower with 9.7 sec in male flowers and 13.8 sec in female flowers. The maximum fruit set of 24.71 fruits/plant was obtained in a stingless bee pollination plot followed by an open pollination plot (24.42 fruits/plant). The pollinator exclusion plot (control) recorded no fruit set.
