Current Science

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

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
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Clark, E. and Christie, B. R., A forage-based vision of Ontario agricul-ture. J. Agric. Ethics, 1988, 1, 109–121.

  • Kremen, C., Williams, N. M. and Thorp, R. W., Crop pollination from native bees at risk from agricultural intensification. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 2002, 99, 16812–16816.

  • Goyal, N. P., Role of honeybees in improving agricultural produc-tivity. In Proceedings of First National Conference on Beekeeping, Chandigarh, 1993.

  • Chaudhary, O. P., Role of insect pollinators in seed production and its quality. In Seed Quality Assurance (eds Dhaiya, B. S., Deswal, D. P. and Bishnoi, S. S.), CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, 1998, pp. 86–113.

  • Nagar, P. and Chaudhary, O. P., Influence of different models of pollination on strawberry yield and quality. Kor. J. Apicult., 2006, 21, 65–74.

  • Klatt, B. K., Holzschuh, A., Westphal, C., Clough, Y., Smit, I., Pawelzik, E. and Tscharntke, T., Bee pollination improves crop quality, shelf life and commercial value. Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. B, 2014, 281, 2013–2440.

  • Garratt, M. P. et al., The identity of crop pollinators helps target conservation for improved ecosystem services. Biol. Conserv., 2014, 169, 128–135.

  • Klein, A. M., Vaissiere, B. E., Cane, J. H., Steffan-Dewenter, I., Cunningham, S. A., Kremen, C. and Tscharntke, T., Importance of pollinators in changing landscapes for world crops. Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. B, 2007, 274, 303–313.

  • Garibaldi, L. A. et al., Wild pollinators enhance fruit set of crops regardless of honey bee abundance. Science, 2013, 339, 1608– 1611.

  • Aizen, M. A., Garibaldi, L. A., Cunningham, S. A. and Klein, A. M., Long-term global trends in crop yield and production reveal no current pollination shortage but increasing pollinator dependency. Curr. Biol., 2008, 18, 1572–1575.

  • Kremen, C., Williams, N. M., Bugg, R. L., Fay, J. P. and Thorp, R. W., The area requirements of an ecosystem service: crop pollination by native bee communities in California. Ecol. Lett., 2004, 7, 1109– 1119.

  • Batra, S. W. T., Bees and pollination in our changing environment. Apidologie, 1995, 26, 361–370.

  • Prescott‐Allen, R. and Prescott‐Allen, C., How many plants feed the world? Conserv. Biol., 1990, 4, 365–374.

  • Engel, M. S. and Schultz, T. R., Phylogeny and behavior in honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am., 1997, 90, 43–53.

  • Udayakumar, A. and Shivalingaswamy, T. M., Nest architecture and life cycle of small carpenter bee, Ceratina binghami Cockerell (Xylocopinae: Apidae: Hymenoptera). Sociobiology, 2019, 66, 61– 65.

  • Kaliaperumal, V., Gupta, A., Thiruvengadam, V., Pannure, A. and Thotambailu Raghavendra, A., Biological notes on nesting biology, development and natural enemies of Braunsapis mixta, a pollinator of cashew. J. Apic. Res., 2022, 61, 1–13.

  • Batra, S. W., Sakagami, S. F. and Maeta, Y., Behavior of the Indian allodapine bee Braunsapis kaliago, a social parasite in the nests of B. mixta (Hymenoptera: Anthophoridae). J. Kansa. Entomol. Soc., 1993, 66, 345–360.

  • Michener, C. D., The Bees of the World, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA, 2007, 2nd edn, p. 953.

  • Schwarz, M. P., Richards, M. H. and Danforth, B. N., Changing paradigms in insect social evolution: insights from Halictine and Allodapine bees. Annu. Rev. Entomol., 2007, 52, 127–150.

  • Michener, C. D., The Bees of the World, The Johns Hopkins Uni-versity Press, Baltimore, 2000, 1st edn, p. 913.

  • Kaliaperumal, V. and Raviprasad, T. N., Artificial nests conserve important native bees, Braunsapis spp. pollinating cashew. Curr. Sci., 2021, 121, 127–132.

  • Schwarz, M. P., Local resource enhancement and sex ratios in a primitively social bee. Nature, 1988, 331, 346–348.

  • Thiele, R., Phenology and nest site preferences of wood-nesting bees in a Neotropical lowland rain forest. Stud. Neotrop. Fauna Environ., 2005, 40, 39–48.

  • Fortel, L., Henry, M., Guilbaud, L., Mouret, H. and Vaissiere, B. E., Use of human-made nesting structures by wild bees in an urban environment. J. Insect Conserv., 2016, 20, 239–253.

  • Kevan, P. G., Pollinators as bioindicators of the state of the envi-ronment: species, activity and diversity. In Invertebrate Biodiversity as Bioindicators of Sustainable Landscapes (ed. Paoletti, M. G.), Padova, Italy, 1999, pp. 373–393.

  • Kearns, C. A. and Oliveras, D. M., Environmental factors affecting bee diversity in urban and remote grassland plots in Boulder, Colo-rado. J. Insect Conserv., 2009, 13, 655–665.

  • Hebert, P. D., Cywinska, A., Ball, S. L. and DeWaard, J. R., Bio-logical identifications through DNA barcodes. Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. B, 2003, 270, 313–321.

  • Magnacca, K. N. and Brown, M. J., DNA barcoding a regional fauna: Irish solitary bees. Mol. Ecol. Resour., 2012, 12, 990–998.

  • Huang, X. and Madan, A., CAP3: a DNA sequence assembly pro-gram. Genome Res., 1999, 9, 868–877.

  • Daly, H. V., Biological studies on Ceratina dallatorreana, an alien bee in California which reproduces by parthenogenesis (Hymenop-tera: Apoidea). Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am., 1966, 59, 1138–1154.

  • Rehan, S. M. and Richards, M. H., Nesting biology and subsociality in Ceratina calcarata (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Can. Entomol., 2010, 142, 65–74.

  • Rehan, S. M. and Richards, M. H., Reproductive aggression and nestmate recognition in a subsocial bee. Anim. Behav., 2013, 85, 733–741.

  • Shiokawa, M. and Michener, C. D., Observations on the nests of Braunsapis sauteriella (Cockerell) (Hymenoptera, Apoidea) in Taiwan. Insects, 1977, 45, 84–86.

  • Smith, J. A., Facultative social parasitism in the Allodapine bee Macrogalea berentyensis. Insect Sci., 2007, 14, 65–69.

  • Aenmey, T. K., Tierney, S. M., Pillay, N. and Schwarz, M. P., Nesting biology of an African Allodapine bee Braunsapis vitrea: female biased sex allocation in the absence of worker-like behav-ioural castes. Ethol. Ecol. Evol., 2006, 18, 205–220.

  • Padmanabhan, P. S. and Chellappan, M., A comparative study on nest architecture and lifecycle of two small carpenter bees Ceratina smaragdula (F.) and Ceratina hieroglyphica Smith. Indian J. Ento-mol., 2022, 84, 38–43.


Abstract Views: 274

PDF Views: 147




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

Abstract Views: 274  |  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

References





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