Nesting Etiquacy of Stingless Bee Tetragonula “Iridipennis” Species Group

Abstract

In this study a total of 42 feral colonies of Tetragonula “iridipennis” were domesticated and observed for their nesting behaviour in feral nest and also in hive. Observation on the nesting behaviour revealed that, they generally inhabit old mud and stone walls, and the shape and colour of nest entrance were predominantly elliptical and black, respectively. The length and width of the entrance tube ranged between 9-13 and 3-9 mm, respectively on different substrata. The external and internal tunnel length ranged between 0-18 and 3-156 mm, respectively. The orientation of hive entrance was mainly towards northeast and east. Number of brood pots constructed/ batch and time required for a worker to construct the single brood pot were recorded.