<div>Bumblebees are one among the anthophilous form and play a significant role in the pollination of major agricultural crops like medicinal, aromatic, ornamental and various other horticultural plants. They are abundant and mostly confined to flowers present in the temperate, alpine and arctic climates of the northern continents. The bumblebees are considered as most important pollinators and are mainly responsible for the conservation of high altitude vegetation germplasm where other insect pollinators are very much limited. They are more successful pollinators and can visit large number of flowers per minute than other bees and are perfect for picking up and transferring appreciable amount of compatible pollen to flowers and thus perform buzz pollination. It is quite evident that the population of bumblebee is gradually declining throughout the globe for the last 7 decades due to agricultural intensification, habitat loss, deforestation, overgrazing, pesticide poisoning and climate change. The present paper addresses this issue on the basis of literature survey.</div>


<div style="text-align:justify">Role of Bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in Pollination of High Land Ecosystems: A Review</div>


<div><strong>Background:</strong> Faba bean is a crop of agro-ecological and socio-economic importance in Morocco. Thus, in a changing climatic context, it is important to develop varieties that are resilient to several abiotic constraints, such as synthetics. However, the reproductive system must be understood.&nbsp;<br />
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<strong>Methods:</strong> We aimed to estimate faba beans outcrossing rate under natural Moroccan conditions, using two varieties, &lsquo;Reina Mora&rsquo; and &lsquo;Zina&rsquo; and two phenotypic markers, seed coat color and its size and shape, in two contrasted locations, Sa&iuml;s and Gharb. Varieties were sown in six alternate rows with six seeds per row and three replicates per location. The experiment consisted in counting the number of purple seeds within &lsquo;Zina&rsquo;s beige offspring. Besides, seeds collected from &lsquo;Reina Mora&rsquo; were counted and processed for differences in size and shape. In total, 859 seeds were measured, including their length, width, thickness, geometric diameter, area and sphericity, enabling to distinguish hybrids from parental seeds and self-seeds.&nbsp;<br />
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<strong>Result:</strong> Results showed an average inter-crossing of 3.7% in Sa&iuml;s and 7.22% in Gharb. A more reliable open-pollination could be achieved by introducing bees and bumblebees colonies as well as using varieties from same geographic gene pools.</div>


Role of Bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in Pollination of High Land Ecosystems: A Review

Estimation of Outcrossing Rate of Faba Bean under Natural Moroccan Conditions