The banana bacterial wilt caused by the Xanthomonas campestris pv.
musacearum (Xcm) is one of the major constraints to banana production
in Uganda. Field observations suggest that the primary means of disease
spread is by insect transmission through the male flowers. This study
carried out an inventory of insects found on banana inflorescence,
investigated possible sources of inoculum in banana plants and
determined insect species that carried the bacterium on their bodies
and thus possible vectors of the disease. The most abundant insects
visiting banana flowers are stingless bee. Plebeina denoiti (Vachal)
(Apidac), fruit flies (Drosophilidae) and grass flies (Chloropidae).
Female flowers had twice as many insects as male flowers. The bacterial
cells have been isolated from the stingless bee (P. denoiti), honey
bees ( Apis melifera ), fruit flies and grass flies that had been
collected from male flowers of both asymptomatic and symptomatic
plants. The bacterial cells isolated from P. denoiti were more than two
times as many as other insect groups. Further studies to confirm the
most of transmission by insects, and to investigate transmission
epidemiology and biology of banana Xanthomonas wilt have been
initiated.