Foraging Behaviour of Heterotrigona itama (Apidae: Meliponini) in Residential Areas

摘要

This study aims to investigate the foraging behaviour of Heterotrigona itama in exploiting food resources at a residential area, and the viability of this species to adapt to urban microclimatic conditions. Heterotrigona itama prefers to forage at areas closer to their nesting site, where diverse food sources are found. The marked bees of H. itama prefer to forage on various resources available at a 500-metre radius from the house yard. The obtained results indicate that the active foraging pattern of H. itama is negatively correlated to the time phases of a day (p 0.05; and humidity, p 0.05). There was a difference between the varieties of content resources collected by the bees (p 0.05). The results showed that H. itama is able to withstand urban microclimate conditions, and successfully incorporated pollen, nectar or water, and resin obtained from floral and non-floral resources into their diet.