DOI: 10.5061/dryad.9zw3r22g1
title: Insect pollinators in different habitats of Shivapuri‐Nagarjun National Park, Nepal

description: Insect pollinators are important means for a stable ecosystem. The habitat
 types play a crucial role in the community composition, abundance,
 diversity, and species richness of the pollinators. The present study in
 Shivapuri-Nagarjun National Park explored the species richness and
 abundances of insect pollinators in four different habitats and different
 environmental variables in determining the community composition of the
 pollinators. Data were collected from 1500 m–2700 m using colour pan traps
 and hand sweeping methods. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and
 redundancy analysis (RDA) were conducted to show the association between
 insect pollinators and environmental variables. The results firmly
 demonstrated that species richness and abundances were higher in open
 trail compared to other habitats. The distribution of the pollinator
 species was more uniform in the open trail followed by the grassland.
 Similarly, a strong positive correlation between flower resources and
 pollinator's abundance was found. In conclusion, the open trail
 harbours rich insect pollinators in lower elevation. The community
 structure of the pollinators was strongly influenced by the presence of
 flowers in the trails.
description: Insect Pollinator
 sampling The survey
 was performed in the spring and autumn seasons for the consecutive years
 2018 and 2019. In each season, the pollinators were sampled for 3
 consecutive days in sunny weather between 9 am to 4 pm (Pollard and Yates,
 1994). The pollinators were collected by using hand sweeping and color
 pans. White, Yellow, and blue color pans were used for insect sampling.
 During each sampling day, a transect walk of 30 minutes was done along the
 100 m of the trail in the open trail of the forest, forest trail, and
 trails of the managed habitat, while in grassland the transect walk was
 made in the edge and the middle (Stanley, 2013). The transect walk method
 was used to sample butterflies (Pollard & Yates, 1994), bumblebees
 (Fussell and Corbet, 1992), hoverflies, and other bees (Proesmans et al.,
 2019). During the walk, insect pollinators that were feeding on flowers
 within 2m of the observer were captured, identified, and released
 (Sutherland, 1996). In the case of the butterfly, they were observed and
 identified during flight and basking within the line transect.
 Unidentified insect pollinators were collected in separate vials,
 transferred in the icebox, and brought to the lab for
 identifications. Pan
 traps were deployed in each transect. This method aided in simultaneous
 sampling multiple locations, coverage of a large number of sites, and is
 the efficient method of bee sampling (Westphal et al., 2008; Neilsen et
 al., 2011). The pans were plastic bowls of about 15 cm diameter and
 painted with non–toxic three different colors; white, yellow, and blue
 (LeBuhn et al., 2003). Each pan was attached to a post using a metal clamp
 adjusting bowl the rim. The pan was filled with about 400ml of detergent
 water. Three posts were deployed in 100 m distance and 20m apart from each
 other. The traps were visited for collecting the fallen insects after 24
 hours and were transferred in labelled vials with 70% ethanol.
 All the insect pollinators
 were identified to species level in the laboratory using relevant keys
 from adjacent regions. Bingham, 1897; Tadauchi & Matsumura, 2007;
 Williams et al., 2010; Imran et al., 2016; Aslam et al., 2017; Ngat et
 al., 2017, and Kumari et al., 2018 for bee specimens. Brunetti, 1923;
 Ghorpadé, 1994, 2016; Claussen & Weipert, 2003; Subhan, 2016;
 Sengupta et al., 2017; Hassan et al., 2019, 2020; Sankararaman et
 al.,<em> </em>2020 for hoverflies and Smith, 2011 for
 butterflies specimen’s identification. Flower Survey The flower survey was carried out in
 the spring and autumn season during the pollinator survey in the same
 transect. We made five quadrates of 10 m X 5 m in each sampling transect.
 For estimation of flower resource abundance, we scanned insect pollinating
 herbs and shrubs in each quadrate and identified genus and species levels.
 The cover of floral resources in each quadrate was ranked between 1– 6
 (Szigeti et al., 2016). Rank 1 indicates very scarce, 2 for scarce, 3 for
 more or less scarce, 4 for more or less abundance, 5 for abundance, and 6
 indicates extremely abundance. The flower resource abundance for each
 sampling transect was calculated as FLOWER= <em>i=1</em>
 <em>n</em> <em>t.taxon</em> <em>i</em>
 ( t =mean of the rank of flowering plant of each
 transect).<br><br>