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Nesting biology of allodapine bee Braunsapis picitarsis (Cameron) from South India


Affiliations
1 Department of Agricultural Entomology, College of Agriculture, Vellanikkara, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur 680 656, India, India
2 Department of Agricultural Entomology, College of Agriculture, Vellanikkara, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur 680 656, India, India
 

The allodapine bee, Braunsapis picitarsis (Cameron) (Allodapini: Xylocopinae: Apidae) is polylectic and found to be an important pollinator for many agricultural and horticultural crops. As B. picitarsis was found to be cryptic to other species, DNA barcoding was done to con­firm the species identity. The nesting sites were located in dried twigs of peacock flower tree, Caesalpinia pulcherrima (L.) and a total of 83 nests were collected from 2019 to 2021. The bees preferred nesting sites with an entrance diameter of 2.83 ± 0.06 mm and a nest length of 5.38 ± 0.30 cm. The total development period was 56.85 ± 0.84 days in the laboratory. Pupa exhibited a difference in eye colour and body pigmentation during development
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  • Nesting biology of allodapine bee Braunsapis picitarsis (Cameron) from South India

Abstract Views: 273  |  PDF Views: 147

Authors

P. S. Anusree Padmanabhan
Department of Agricultural Entomology, College of Agriculture, Vellanikkara, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur 680 656, India, India
Mani Chellappan
Department of Agricultural Entomology, College of Agriculture, Vellanikkara, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur 680 656, India, India

Abstract


The allodapine bee, Braunsapis picitarsis (Cameron) (Allodapini: Xylocopinae: Apidae) is polylectic and found to be an important pollinator for many agricultural and horticultural crops. As B. picitarsis was found to be cryptic to other species, DNA barcoding was done to con­firm the species identity. The nesting sites were located in dried twigs of peacock flower tree, Caesalpinia pulcherrima (L.) and a total of 83 nests were collected from 2019 to 2021. The bees preferred nesting sites with an entrance diameter of 2.83 ± 0.06 mm and a nest length of 5.38 ± 0.30 cm. The total development period was 56.85 ± 0.84 days in the laboratory. Pupa exhibited a difference in eye colour and body pigmentation during development

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv124%2Fi1%2F102-107