Scientific Study from the year 2016 in the subject Biology - Miscellaneous, , language: English, abstract: Stingless bees are highly social insects which populated the tropical earth 65 million years ago and have been around much longer than honey bees. They are limited to the tropics and subtropics, lack a venom apparatus and cannot sting. Impacts of anthropogenic influences on honey bees have already been reported. Recent studies also showed that the nesting behaviour of Trigona iridipennis Smith in its natural habitat also varies due to interaction, pheromones and environmental stimulus. Little is reported so far about the various natural and domesticated nesting of the Trigona iridipennis Smith in Kerala. Based on thise background, our objectives of this study were to 1) to characterize the Meliponiculture 2) to identify the various natural habitats and domestication materials for nest construction and different types of nests used across Kerala. Various beekeeping methods preferred by farmers across Kerala for the cultivation of Trigona iridipennis Smith. Each nest has its own advantage and disadvantage. During the survey, the most preferred ones were wooden box. Even then according to the easy availability and production cost different nests like earthen pot, bamboo nodes, coconut shell, PVC pipes etc were used. The most preferred natural nesting sites by Trigona iridipennis Smith were mud/stone walls in our study. Being a social insect, Trigona iridipennis Smith shows great diversity in nesting pattern in natural habitats as well as anthropogenic habitats. The shift towards anthropogenic habitats than natural ones may be due to destruction of natural habitats as well as the availability of manmade habitats.
Stingless bees are highly social insects which populated the tropical earth 65 million years ago longer than honey bees. They are limited to tropics and subtropics lacking venom apparatus and cannot sting. Impacts of anthropogenic influences on honey bees were already reported. Recent studies also showed that the nesting behaviour of Trigona iridipennis Smith in natural habitat also vary due to interaction, pheromones and environmental stimulus. A little is reported so far about the various natural and domesticated nesting of the Trigona iridipennis Smith in Kerala. Trigona iridipennis Smith shows great diversity in plant selection for dietary as well as resin sources. The shift towards ornamental plants for foraging may be an adaptation evolved in response to human modification of the environment. The bees collect resin from a variety of sources for building nest, its maintenance and also for defence. This hand book deals with several aspect of Meliponiculture and various problems dealing with stingless bees in Kerala.
Scientific Study from the year 2014 in the subject Biology - Zoology, , language: English, abstract: Stingless bees are highly social insects which populated the tropical earth 65 million years ago longer than honey bees. They are limited to tropics and subtropics lacking venom apparatus and cannot sting. Impacts of anthropogenic influences on honey bees were already reported. Based on these back ground, the objectives of this study were to 1) to characterize the swarming and drone movements of Trigona iridipennis Smith in Kerala 2) to identify the foraging behaviour, colour preference and various plants associated with Trigona iridipennis Smith for nest construction as well as dietary sources. Feral as well as hived colonies of stingless bees were located and fixed at different parts of Kerala for observations on their foraging activity. Bee traffic was also measured during various timings across a bright sunny day in November 2013 and between colonies. Bee traffic among Trigona iridipennis Smith varied widely among the selected four colonies during various time intervals. In all the colonies bee traffic starts between 6 to 7 am and end by 7 to 7.10 pm. Bee traffic exhibited two peaks. One during 10 to 10.10 am and the other 2 to 3.10 pm. But in colony 4 the picture is different, where the morning peak was 11 to 11.10 am and the afternoon peak was 3 to 3.10 pm. Trigona iridipennis Smith shows great diversity in plant selection for dietary as well as resin sources. The shift towards ornamental plants for foraging may be an adaptation evolved in response to human modification of the environment. The bees collect resin from a variety of sources for building nest, its maintenance and also for defence. Bee traffic is found to be related to time, season, and strength of the colony. The bees preferred white and yellow coloured flowers than pink and red. The study also highlights the various food sources of Trigona iridipennis Smith in Kerala which can be further explored for flourishing melliponiculture.
Stingless bees are highly social insects which populated the tropical earth 65 million years ago longer than honey bees. They are limited to tropics and subtropics lacking venom apparatus and cannot sting. Impacts of anthropogenic influences on honey bees were already reported. Recent studies also showed that the nesting behaviour of Trigona (Tetragonula) iridipennis Smith in natural habitat also vary due to interaction, pheromones and environmental stimulus. Trigona iridipennis Smith shows great diversity in plant selection for dietary as well as resin sources. The shift towards ornamental plants for foraging may be an adaptation evolved in response to human modification of the environment. The bees collect resin from a variety of sources for building nest, its maintenance and also for defence. Bee traffic is found to be related to time, season, and strength of the colony. The study also highlights the various food sources of Trigona iridipennis Smith in Kerala which can be further explored for flourishing meliponiculture.
Scientific Study from the year 2014 in the subject Biology - Zoology, , language: English, abstract: The major species of stingless bees in Kerala is Trigona iridipennis Smith which are easy to domesticate due to low temperament and easy adaption to various habitats. Little is known about the variations that exist among them. We therefore conducted morphometric studies among workers and drones across 14 districts in Kerala with a view to characterize them. A total of 188 and 71 samples of drones and workers collected and analyzed various morphometric characters including head length (HL), head width (HW), proboscis length (PL), distance between two dorsal ocelli/lower intercocular distance (DBO), dorsal ocello-ocular distance (DOOD), antennal length (AL), thorax femur length (TFL), thorax tibia length (TTL), thorax metatarsus length (TML), thorax metatarsus width (TMW), thorax forewing length (TFWL), thorax forewing width (TFWW), pterostigma width (PtStW), pterostigma length (PtStW), hind wing length (HWL), hind wing width (HWW), number of hamuli (HAM), abdominal tergite length (AbTL), abdominal sternum width (AbSW), mandible length (MdL) and mandible width (MdW), head length width ratio (HLW), thorax metatarsus length width ratio (TMLW) and thorax forewing length width ratio (TFWLW). Our studies revealed that most of the worker morhopometric characters were positively correlated across all the districts in Kerala. However, there is not much significant differences among drones across various districts. Based on our studies, even though we detected significant differences among worker morhphotmetry we could not to find distinguishing and remarkable differences among collected samples. They may be interpreted as nutritional, seasonal and climatic factors.
Scientific Study from the year 2016 in the subject Biology - Zoology, , language: English, abstract: Stingless bees are limited to tropics and subtropics with diversity in species and share morphological and behaviour patterns. Stingless bees are major pollinators of flowering plants in the tropics and improve crop productivity. Trigona iridipennis Smith were kept in India for centuries for the high medicinal value of honey as well as propolis and bee wax. A wide range of variations, especially worker and drone body size and measurement, were reported. Morphometric and geometric analysis provide a valuable tool for the differentiating variations among various honey bees and stingless bees. Based on these back ground, our objectives of this study were 1) to characterize the morphometric aspects of workers in this reported new species of stingless bees and 2) to identify the various similarities and differences existing based on factor and principal component analysis with Trigona iridipennis Smith. A total of 30 samples of workers were collected and various morphometric characters including head length (HL), head width (HW), proboscis length (PL), distance between two dorsal ocelli/lower intercocular distance (DBO), dorsal ocello-ocular distance (DOOD), antennal length (AL), thorax femur length (TFL), thorax tibia length (TTL), thorax metatarsus length (TML), thorax metatarsus width (TMW), thorax forewing length (TFWL), thorax forewing width (TFWW), pterostigma width (PtStW), pterostigma length (PtStW), hind wing length (HWL), hind wing width (HWW), number of hamuli (HAM), abdominal tergite length (AbTL), abdominal sternum width (AbSW), mandible length (MdL) and mandible width (MdW), head length width ratio (HLW), thorax metatarsus length width ratio (TMLW) and thorax forewing length width ratio (TFWLW) were analyzed. One sample (SS1) showed distinct differences in habitat preference (Laterite rock), appearance (size and colour), behaviour (passive) and nest architecture (narrow round entrance tube, snow white brood, cream white food pots). The present study based on the morphometry of stingless bees across Kerala shows that, in spite of the morphological and behavioural variations exhibited by the bees, members of all samples belong to Trigona iridipennis. But one sample (SS1) shows entirely different morphometric characteristics. It was found that this sample belongs to genus Lisotrigona
Stingless bees/Dammer bees are the smallest of the honey producing bees. Trigona and Melipona are the most important geera of stingless bees. Trigona is the largest and most widely distributed genus, which incluse 130 species under ten sub-genera. the present studies were taken with the following objectives 1) to study nesting charateristics, biology and seasonal variations, 2) to study foraging behaviour of Trigona iridipennis Smith in comparison with Apis cerena indica, 3) to identity the major food sources of T. iridipennis and A. cerena, 4) to study pollination potentiality of stinglees bee T. iridipennis on certain crops. The total period required from oviposition to adult emergence was 53.30 days comprising 5.75, 12.70, 35.30 days for egg, larvae and pupal stages, respectively. The length of this period was 2.53 times more than that of A. cerana. The marked adults of T. iridipennis had a life span ranging between 80-87 days. The time spent by different species of honeybees in collection of pollen was maximum at 0800 hrs and for nectar from pistillate and staminate flowers was at 1600 hrs. The flower drop in control plot (89.50 %) was found to be significantly higher over other treatments. Maximum fruit set, fruit weight and fruit volume was recorded in open pollinated plot than T. iridipennis caged and control plots. T. iridipennis contributed for 61.00 per cent fruit set while it was only 10.50 per cent in control plot. The germination percentage was found significantly higher in the seeds of open and T. iridipennis pollinated seeds compared to seeds from control plot.
