First record of Epuraea motschulskyi as a potential pollinator of pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.): biosystematics, molecular characterization, and pollination efficiency

Pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.) is an economically important dioecious vegetable crop having separate plants growing male and female flowers. Cross-pollination is imperative for its fruit settings and insects play a pivotal role in this. Although a nitidulid beetle was reported to be a primary pollinator in pointed gourd, its species identification and validation were needed to enhance the fruit production. The beetles collected from the pointed gourd have revealed presence of abundant round or spheroidal, trizonopororate, sticky pointed gourd pollens. Further, role of beetle was validated in farmers field where no fruit set was recorded when beetle’s visit was curtailed. Twenty adult beetles were artificially released into a caged pot, and the maximum fruit setting (30.43%) indicated its potential role in pointed gourd pollination in vegetable ecosystem. Beetle-pollinated fruits had higher fruit length (6.88 cm), width (2.83 cm), fruit weight (22.63 g), and lesser number of seeds (16.75) than the hand-pollinated fruits (6.21 cm, 2.77 cm, 19.41 g, and 21.75 numbers, respectively). The morphological and molecular analysis identified the species as Epuraea motschulskyi and the study hereby reports for the first time that E. motschulskyi is the primary pollinator in pointed gourd. The study also suggests that the release and protection of the beetle in pointed gourd field would lead to enhanced fruit set.