Vol. 12, Issue 5 (2023)

Author(s):
Arshad Shaikh, Santosh Wankhede, Sameer Kale, Arfa Ainarkar and Sayali Mali

Abstract:
The Nesting structure of stingless bee indicated that the average brood cell height was recorded 1.93±0.08 mm and width of 2.13±0.05 mm. The queen cell was larger than the worker cells. Soft cerumen was used to make the pollen and honey pots. The mean height and breadth of oval-shaped pollen pots were 5.69±0.56 mm and 4.50±0.21 mm, respectively. Entrance tube length and width were recorded 1.63 mm and 0.93 mm respectively. However internal cavity length and height were found 10.6 cm and 34.6 cm, respectively. The honey pots were oval, dark brown and slightly bigger than the pollen pots. The mean height and breadth of honey pots were 6.75±0.4 mm and 5.52±0.3 mm, respectively. It requires 38.2±1.48 days to complete the biology of stingless bee Tetragonula nr. pagdeni from egg laying by the queen to the emergence of the adult from brood cells. Development of larvae from eggs required 6 to 7 days. With continued growth in age, the length and width expanded. the larval period lasted between 14 and 16 days with a mean of 15.1±0.74 days. The pupal stage lasted 18.7±0.82 days before the adult stage appeared. Exarate type pupa is found and it is creamy white in colour. From egg to adult, the complete growth process took 38.20 days. The mean length and width of the egg was noticed 0.83±0.03 mm and 0.33±0.03 mm, respectively. The larvae were creamy white, apodous and C-shaped. The 1-day old larva was measured 1.06±0.05 mm in length and 0.25±0.01mm in width.