Nesting Behaviour of the Giant Honeybees Apis dorsata Occurring in Jhargram, West Bengal, India

The giant honeybees Apisdorsata are habituated to construct combs in trees, houses, caves as well as in overhead water reservoir occurring in their nesting localities. To verify their preference for nesting sites if any, surveys were conducted in recent years (2013–16), during nesting seasons of the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the Zoological Society 2017-12, Vol.70 (2), p.194-200
Main Authors: Misra, T. K., Pahari, S., Murmu, S., Raut, S. K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Caves
Nesting behavior
Nests
Trees
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Summary:The giant honeybees Apisdorsata are habituated to construct combs in trees, houses, caves as well as in overhead water reservoir occurring in their nesting localities. To verify their preference for nesting sites if any, surveys were conducted in recent years (2013–16), during nesting seasons of these bees in Jhargram area of West Bengal, India. It is revealed that A. dorsata construct their combs in big, tall, aged simul (Bombaxceiba), bot (Ficusbenghalensis) trees mostly, irrespective of localities. Also they were seen to construct nest at the underside of the overhead water reservoir ignoring nesting potential trees occurring nearby. Of course, nesting in the houses, and on the walls of culvert is not uncommon. As the bees constructed more than 100–200 nests at the same nesting site e.g., a tree or/and an overhead water reservoir, depending upon the availability of space for construction of nest it is concluded that these insects prefer colonial nesting.
ISSN:0373-5893
0974-6919
DOI:10.1007/s12595-016-0176-9