Documentation of Bee Pasturage and their Foraging Behaviour in Tropical Forests

Abstract

Honey bees are a crucial part for functioning of natural ecosystem and crop production. As they do service as pollinator, promotion in all categories of nursery industry where the performance of seed increase plots as well as the importance of pollination in supporting persistent plant communities in tropical areas. A study was conducted to document bee pasturage and the foraging activity of domesticated honey bee, Apis cerana indica in tropical forest system at Forest College and Research Institute, Mettupalayam, Tamil Nadu. The bee flora accounted the study location was 38 covers 23 families. Among these, Fabaceae, Bignoniaceae and Caesalpiniaceae contributes a maximum of 5 species (13.15%) followed by Mimosaceae contributing 3 species (5.26%) and Meliaceae 2 species (4.74%). Among all climatic factors, day temperature had significant impact on foraging activity of A.cerana by adversely affecting the numbers of worker bees moving out of hive. With increase in minimum temperature and relative humidity, there was an increase in bee activity but the later adversely affected pollen collection efficiency of bees. Rainfall hampered the foraging activity while wind speed was found to have no significant effect.