The dammer bee, Trigona and its pollination potential in the Indian flora

摘要

Trigona is a meliponine bee with wide nesting habits. It is a habitual flower forager and thrives all through the year. An examination of the foraging ecology of this bee with the Indian flora shows that it is polylectic in that it collects pollen and nectar from widely different plant species. It also collects pollen from the nectarless plant species. The floral calender of the bee shows that the plant species bloom at different times of the year and sustain the bee round the year. Flower-openingschedules in the plant species that flower at the same time and occur in the same habitat are separated by time and this situation enables the bee to avoid or overcome competition with other simultaneously foraging insects for the same floral sources. The bee frequents more at white and yellow flowers over other floral colours. It is capable of utilizing floral nectars with widely varying sugar concentrations and located deeply at the flower base. It does not rob floral nectar. Trigona exhibits floral constancy with its pollen collecting behaviour. Besides its leg pollen pellets, it also carries small amount of pollen on its body. Its forage collecting behaviour is reported to, effect pollination in most of the plant species it visits. Trigona with wider adaptations to extreme conditions, wider nesting requirements and 'weedy' type of reproduction in warm conditions appears to be superior over Apis bees for consideration as a manageable pollinator.