A Sustainable Technique for Colony Multiplication by Eduction of Wild Nests of the Stingless Bee Tetragonula iridipennis Smith

Authors

  • Amala Udayakumar ICAR - National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources, Hebbal, Bengaluru, KarnatakaIndia
  • H.S. Venu ICAR - National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources, Hebbal, Bengaluru, KarnatakaIndia
  • K. G. R. Chandramanu ICAR-National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources, Hebbal, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
  • Timalapur M. Shivalingaswamy ICAR-National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources, Hebbal, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
  • Arkalagud N. Shylesha ICAR-National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources, Hebbal, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
  • Kesavan Subaharan ICAR-National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources, Hebbal, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
  • Satya Nand Sushil ICAR-National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources, Hebbal, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13102/sociobiology.v70i3.9148

Keywords:

annexure hive, eduction, wild colony, queen seeding

Abstract

Colony multiplication of stingless bees, Tetragonula iridipennis, largely relies on the eduction of wild colonies from their natural nesting sites in India. During the hiving of wild colonies, colonies were destroyed with the loss of robust wild foragers and built-in storage reserves over the years. The present study was conducted to devise a technique to sustainably multiply the colonies of stingless bees from the wild colony and the colony establishment and development during the eduction process. The annexure hives provided for eduction were accepted in a shorter time (3.25 ± 1.18 days), with the construction of storage pots observed at 7.75 ± 1.59 days after hive acceptance by the bees. The movement of foragers between the wild colony and the annexure hives was noticed for 13.80 ± 4.20 days. The foragers settled in the annexure hives and started foraging after 18.20 ± 2.49 days. The advancing fronts were observed at 26.67 ± 2.58 days after the addition of the laying queen in the established annexure hives. There was a significant increase in the number of inhive workers after the queen seeding in the annexure hives. This technique is the easiest and most sustainable non-
destructive way of multiplication of stingless bee colonies without loss in viability of the perennial wild colony.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Cruz, D.O., Freitas, B.M., Silva, L.A., Silva, E.M.S., & Bomfim, I.G.A. (2005). Pollination efficiency of the stingless bee Melipona subnitida on greenhouse sweet pepper. Pesquisa Agropecuaria Brasileira, 40: 1197-1201. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/S0100-204X2005001200006

Danaraddi, C.S. (2007). Studies on stingless bee, Trigona iridipennis Smith with special reference to foraging behaviour and melissopalynology at Dharwad, Karnataka. University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, 134 pp.

Dreller, C., Page, R.E., & Fondrk, M.K. (1999). Regulation of pollen foraging in honeybee colonies: effects of young brood, stored pollen, and empty space. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 45: 227-233. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s002650050557

Eardley, C.D. (2004). Taxonomic revision of the African stingless bees (Apoidea: Apidae: Apinae: Meliponini). African Plant Protection, 1: 63-96.

Eckert, C.D., Winston, M.L., & Ydenberg, R.C. (1994). The relationship between population size, amount of brood, and individual foraging behavior in the honey bee, Apis mellifera L. Oecologia, 97: 248-255. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00323157

Gadhiya, V.C. & Pastagia, J.J. (2015). Flowers visited by stingless bees, Tetragonula laeviceps Smith. AGRES - An International e-Journal, 4: 323-330.

Heard, T.A. (1988). Propagation of hives in stingless bee of T. carbonaria. Journal of Australian Entomological Society, 27: 303-304. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-6055.1988.tb01178.x

Hemanth Kumar, R., Srinivasa Reddy, K.M., Shishira, D. & Eshwarappa, G. (2020). Stingless bees in sunflower pollination. Journal of Entomology and Zoology Studies, 8: 299-302.

Jaffé, R., Dietemann, V., Allsopp, M.H., Costa, C., Crewe, R.M., Dallolio, R. & Rua, P.D.L. (2010). Estimating the density of honeybee colonies across their natural range to fill the gap in pollinator decline censuses. Conservation Biology, 24: 583-593. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01331.x

Jaffé, R., Pope, N., Carvalho, A.T., Maia, U.M., Blochtein, B., Carvalho, C.A.L., Zilse, G.A.C., Freitas, B.M., Menezes Ribeiro, M.D.F., Venturieri, G.C. & Fonseca, V.L.I. (2015). Bees for Development: Brazilian Survey Reveals How to Optimize Stingless Beekeeping. PLoS One, 10: e0121157. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0121157

Kishan, T.M., Srinivasan, M.R., Rajashree, V. & Thakur, R.K. (2017). Stingless bee Tetragonula iridipennis Smith for pollination of greenhouse cucumber. Journal of Entomology and Zoology Studies, 5: 1729-1733.

Medina, L., Hart, A.G. & Ratnieks, F.L.W. (2014). Waste management in the stingless bee Melipona beecheii Bennett (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Sociobiology, 61: 435-440. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13102/sociobiology.v61i4.435-440

Mogho, N.M.T., Akwanjoh, S.R., Wittmann, D., & Kenneth, T. (2018). Nest architecture and colony characteristics of Meliponula bocandei (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponini) in Cameroon. International Journal of Research in Agricultural Sciences, 5: 2348-3997.

Nogueira-Neto, P. (1948). Notas bionomicas sobre meliponineos. I. Sobre ventilação dos ninhos e as constucões com ela relationadas, Revista Brasileira de Biologia, 8: 465-488.

Oleksa, A., Gawronski, R. & Tofilski, A. (2013). Rural avenues as a refuge for wild honey bee population. Journal of Insect Conservation, 17: 465-472. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-012-9528-6

Oliveira, R.C., Menezes, C., Soares, A.E.E. & Fonseca, V.L.I. (2013). Trap-nests for stingless bees (Hymenoptera, Meliponini). Apidologie, 44: 29-37. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-012-0152-y

Oliver, R. (2014). What’s happening to the bees? Is there a difference between domesticated and feral bees? https://scientificbeekeeping.com.

Pavithra, N.P., Shankar R.M. & Jayaprakash. (2013). Nesting pattern preferences of stingless bee, Trigona iridipennis Smith (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in Jnanabharathi Campus, Karnataka, India. International Research Journal of Biological Sciences, 2: 44-50

Quezada-Euán, J.J.G. (2018). Stingless Bee of Mexico: The Biology, Management and Conservation of an Ancient Heritage. Cham: Springer p. 294. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77785-6

Roubik, D.W. (2006). Stingless bee nesting biology. Apidologie, 37: 124-143. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1051/apido:2006026

Singh, A.K. 2016. Traditional Meliponiculture by Naga tribes in Nagaland, India. Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge, 15: 693-699.

Slaa, E.J., Sánchez, L.A., Sandî, M. & Salzar, W. (2000b). Pollination of an ornamental plant (Salvia farinacea: Labiatae) by two species of stingless bees and Africanised honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae), pp. 209-215. In: Sommeijer M.J., Ruijter A. de, eds. Insect Pollination in Greenhouses: Proceedings specialists’ meeting held in Soesterberg, The Netherlands. 220 pp.

Vijayakumar, K., Muthuraman, M. & Jayaraj, R. (2013). Propagating Trigona iridipennis colonies (Apidae: Meliponini) by eduction method. Scholars Academic Journal of Biosciences, 1: 13.

Downloads

Published

2023-08-22

How to Cite

Udayakumar, A., Venu, H., Chandramanu, K. G. R., Shivalingaswamy, T. M., Shylesha, A. N., Subaharan, K., & Sushil, S. N. (2023). A Sustainable Technique for Colony Multiplication by Eduction of Wild Nests of the Stingless Bee Tetragonula iridipennis Smith. Sociobiology, 70(3), e9148. https://doi.org/10.13102/sociobiology.v70i3.9148

Issue

Vol. 70 No. 3 (2023)

Section

Research Article - Bees

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Amala Udayakumar, H.S. Venu, K. G. R. Chandramanu, Timalapur M. Shivalingaswamy, Arkalagud N. Shylesha, Kesavan Subaharan, Satya Nand Sushil

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Sociobiology is a diamond open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

 

    1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

 

    1. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

 

  1. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

Most read articles by the same author(s)