Keystone food resources for honey bees in South Indian west coast during monsoon

The low level, denuded, laterite landscape of coastal Uttara Kannada has a rich diversity of monsoon herbs, including threatened and newly discovered ones. Our study reveals that honey bees congregate on the ephemeral herb community of Utricularias, Eriocaulons and Impatiens during their gregarious...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current science (Bangalore) 2014-05, Vol.106 (10), p.1379-1386
Main Authors: Balachandran, C., Chandran, M. D. Subash, Ramachandra, T. V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Apiculture
Apis dorsata
Apis mellifera
Eriocaulon
Flowers
Herbs
Honey bees
Impatiens
Insect communities
Insect pests
Insect pollination
Laterites
New species
Plants
Trigona
Utricularia
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Summary:The low level, denuded, laterite landscape of coastal Uttara Kannada has a rich diversity of monsoon herbs, including threatened and newly discovered ones. Our study reveals that honey bees congregate on the ephemeral herb community of Utricularias, Eriocaulons and Impatiens during their gregarious monsoon flowering period. Apis dorsata had highest visitations on Utricularias, Impatiens and Flacourtia indica, whereas Trigona preferred Eriocaulons. Laterite herb flora merits conservation efforts as a keystone food resource for the insect community, especially for honey bees.
ISSN:0011-3891