Food Reward and Distance Influence the Foraging Pattern of Stingless Bee, Heterotrigona itama
1
School of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus 21030, Terengganu, Malaysia
2
Center of Excellence Apis and Meliponine, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus 21030, Terengganu, Malaysia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Insects 2018, 9(4), 138; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects9040138
Received: 2 July 2018
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Revised: 29 September 2018
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Accepted: 6 October 2018
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Published: 11 October 2018
Beekeeping with stingless bee provides new opportunities to improve the incomes of many households in Malaysia through the sale of honey and other bee products. While Heterotrigona itama is one of the most commonly cultured species of stingless bees, its behavior is not very well understood. Hence, we conducted this study to investigate the behavior of H. itama in exploiting food sources by ascertaining the nectar sugar concentration preferred by the bee. We also aimed to determine the preferred distance of food source from the beehive. Our results suggest that H. itama prefers high sugar concentrations of 35% and above, and most of the bees preferred to forage close to their hive to collect food. We discuss how nectar concentration, food distance, and abiotic factors influence the number of bees exploiting food sources and the overall foraging pattern of H. itama.
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Keywords:
foraging activity; food exploitation; sugar nectar concentration; tropical species; meliponiculture; bee farming
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MDPI and ACS Style
Basari, N.; Ramli, S.N.; Mohd Khairi, N.'.S. Food Reward and Distance Influence the Foraging Pattern of Stingless Bee, Heterotrigona itama. Insects 2018, 9, 138. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects9040138
AMA Style
Basari N, Ramli SN, Mohd Khairi N'S. Food Reward and Distance Influence the Foraging Pattern of Stingless Bee, Heterotrigona itama. Insects. 2018; 9(4):138. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects9040138
Chicago/Turabian StyleBasari, Norasmah, Sarah N. Ramli, and Nur '.S. Mohd Khairi. 2018. "Food Reward and Distance Influence the Foraging Pattern of Stingless Bee, Heterotrigona itama" Insects 9, no. 4: 138. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects9040138
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