title: The effect of blow flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) on the size and weight of mangos (Mangifera indica L.).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pollination has a great effect on the yield of fruit trees. Blow flies are considered as an effective pollinator compared to hand pollination in fruit orchards. Therefore, this study was designed to evaluate the effect of different pollination methods in mango orchards.
  
  
  METHODS
  The impact of pollination on quantity and quality of mango yield by blow flies was estimated by using three treatments, i.e., open pollinated trees, trees were covered by a net in the presence of blow flies for pollination, and trees were covered with a net but without insects.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The maximum number of flowers was recorded in irregular types of inflorescence, i.e., 434.80 flowers/inflorescence. Fruit setting (bud) was higher in open pollinated mango trees (i.e. 37.00/inflorescence) than enclosed pollination by blow flies (i.e. 22.34/inflorescence). The size of the mango fruit was the highest (5.06 mm) in open pollinated tree than those pollinated by blow flies (3.93 mm) and followed by without any pollinator (3.18 mm) at marble stage. We found that the maximum weight of mango fruit (201.19 g) was in open pollinated trees.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results demonstrated that blow flies can be used as effective mango pollinators along with other flies and bees. The blow flies have shown a positive impact on the quality and quantity of mango. This study will be helpful in future and also applicable at farm level to use blow flies as pollinators that are cheap and easy to rear.
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture, Multan, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Shafqat
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saeed
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Production and Technologies, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Niğde University, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Nidge, Turkey.
authors.forename: Muhammad Nadir
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Naqqash
authors.affiliation: College of Agriculture, South China Agriculture University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Waqar
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jaleel
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Qamar
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Saeed
authors.affiliation: College of Agriculture, South China Agriculture University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Fozia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ghouri
keywords: Mango; Pollination