Stingless bees are effective pollinators of many crops. Studies have found that pollination by stingless bees increased yields of sunflower, Niger, and chow chow. Pollination of onion by stingless bees resulted in more fruits per umbel than other methods. Analysis of honey from Trigona iridipennis found the highest amounts came from Moringa oleifera and Scaptatrigona emerginatus crops. Pollination of greenhouse peppers by Melipona subnitida achieved a 70% fruit set. Stingless bees are suitable for greenhouse pollination due to their adaptability and horizontal flight patterns. However, their use in crop pollination is limited by the lack of

1. STINGLESS BEES

2. Introduction
 Also called as dammer bees
 Bee keeping with stingless bees is known Meliponiculture
 2 important genera: Trigona and Melipona
 Trigona genera consists 130 species and Melipona have 50
species
 Stingless bees colonies are perennial and usually consist of
100s or 1000s of workers
 They can be domesticated and used for production of
honey and wax
 Stingless bees have mass provisional larval feeding

3. DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTION
 Stingless bees inhabit and subtropical parts of the world
According to Michener (2000) there are about 36 genera
and several hundred species
 Atsalek et al (2005) reported that 500 species are recorded
mostly in tropical countries, most common genera were
Trigona, Meliponula, Dectylurina, Lestrimelitta etc.,
 Trigona is extensive genera in tribe meliponini in tropical
regions of all continents

4. Taxonomic classification
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Arthropoda
Class Insecta
Order Hymenoptera
Sub order Apocrita
Super family Apoidea
Family Apidae
Sub family Apinae
Tribe Meliponini

5. Paratigona sp.
Trigona sp. Melipona sp.

6. Stingless bees True honey bees
• oldest known fossil: Trigona prisca
(about 96 to 74 M years ago)
• true Apis type was first discovered
in Lower Miocene ( 22 to 25 MYA)
• found in tropical and sub tropical
regions
• found in almost all regions of the
world
• they do not sting(highly reduced)
but defend by biting if disturbed.
• sting is well developed, defend by
stinging if disturbed
• Body size is smaller • Bigger than stingless bees
• Honey yield is less • Honey yield is more
• Trigona colony has 100,000 workers • Apis has about 60,000 workers
• Swarming and absconding behavior
is less because there are >2 queens
per colony
• Swarming and absconding are
common phenomenon
• tolerant to pests and diseases:
because of their smaller size and use
of propolis which has germicidal and
pest repellant
• susceptible to pests and diseases

7. NEST BIOLOGY
 Common nesting sites of stingless bees are tree cavities,
cracks and crevices in old walls or stone walls
Trigona carbonaria - inside hollows in trees or
wooden pillars of houses
Trigona laevicepes - tree cavities
Trigona gribodei - tree trunks and cavities
T. oyuni and T. moorei – ant nests
T. Gribodei – termite mound
 Nest consists: external tube, internal tunnel, resin dumps,
waste dumps, food pots for storing pollen and honey, brood
pots and nest envelops like involucrum and batumen.
 Entrance tube has made out of cerumen

8. Nest of Melipona

13. FOOD POTS:
• Present either above, below or at both sides of the brood area
• Built one above other or side by side when sealed
• Pollen pots were built closer to the entrance
• Honey pots in outer parts of the nest but often the cluster will
contain both honey and pollen pots
BROOD CELLS:
• Arrange in clusters and more crowded
• Distinct colour variation on their age
• Newly constructed: brownish
• Straw coloured with as age advances
• Brood cells are vertically elongated and oriented
• Brood cells of worker and drone are similar in size but
queen cells are larger

14. BEHAVIOUR:
 Stingless bees are active all round the year, less active in
cooler weathers, even some species undergo diapause
 Blum et al (1984) reported the few genera (genus Oxytrigona
tataria, Fire bee) produces a secretion from its extensively
developed mandibular gland that produces lesions when come
in contact with human skin
BIOLOGY:
• Queen main ovipositioning function
• Workers regulate cell construction and discharge of larval food
• Workers of 9 to 13 days are more active in provisioning of brood
cells
• 5-6 workers fill up the cell with larval food
• After mass provisioning, queen lays egg
• 4-5 secs after egg laying, one worker closes that cell with wax in
about 2.5 to 3 minutes

15. Domicile (Nest biology)
Nests are notable points of bee activity, often spectacular
examples of animal architecture, nesting biology is a highly
visible aspect of stingless bee behavior(Michener, 1974).
 Colonies are active every day and therefore have sustained
impact among the biota (Roubik, 1989; Hansell, 1993).
The individual species are recognizable from nest entrances and
often their particular site – much obvious variety exists.
Inside the nest, there are different shapes and arrangements of
brood cells and food storage containers.
Honey and pollen are stored in separate ‘pots’.
Stored nectar or ripened honey are in nest cavity extremes (for
storage during heavy flowering periods), while pollen and some
honey surround the brood area.

16. Storage pots of stingless bee

17. Nest of stingless bee

20. Nest structures

21. Stages Trigona moorei Trigona itama
Egg (days) 5.5 4.20
Larval(days) 10 10.4
Pupa(days) 31 31.9
Total (days) 46.5 46.5
LIFE STAGES OF STINGLESS BEES
FORAGING BEHAVIOUR:
• Foraging will optimum early in morning i.e., in T. fulviventris at 0700 hr @20
departures/min which declined by 1000 hr @ 20 departures/min
• In early morning 50% of bees were returning with pollen
• Areas and amounts of pollen and nectar collected by honey bees is 10 times
more than stingless bees

22. Stages Tasks Days
1 Emergence and rest 1
2 Incubation of brood, work the wax into the
cells, then the entire nest
2 to 11
3 Construction, filling and capping of cells,
feeding of young adults and queen, cleaning
the nest, incubating
12 to 21
4 Feeding the queen and young adults and
cleaning the nests, development cerumen
22 to 26
5 Work of cerumen, nest building and involucrum
, recieving nectar, storing food
27 to 35
6 Transition to foraging
7 Foraging and track marking (fragrant) 36 to death
[43 to 54 in
Scaptotrigona
postica]

23. Communication:
Mainly by 2 ways a) Signals
b) Cues
• Signals have specific role in communication, they are nothing
but pheromones.
• Cues are incidental features present in environment. They
have not been moulded by natural selection to carry a specific
meaning for intended receivers.
Pheromones
Releaser
Induces a change in behaviour
Primer
Induces development process

24. The role of semio-chemicals in foraging ecology of stingless
bees divides the main volatile compounds in the four
categories:
1. Food odours
2. Food source marking volatiles
3. Trail pheromones
4. The chemicals used by robber bees and casual theives
during nest plundering
Food odours: Flower volatiles or compounds emanating from
carcasses are used by many bees to detect and orient towards
the food sources.
Plays important role in:
a) Flower constancy of individual
b) Recruitment of fellow workers within nest.

25. Villa and Weiss (1990) trained bees Tetragonisca angustula
were exposed to identically coloured feeders. The experiment
results that previously foraged feeder significantly attracted as
presumably chemical marks left on them.
Jostling: Foragers bump into other bees crossing their paths
when running around and changing the direction in an irregular
way
 well known in Melipona sp.
 produces air borne sound even man can hear
Hrneir et al (2000)

26. Nest plundering: plundering the food reserves from other
species of stingless bees or sometimes true bees
• Lestrimelitta sp. is highly specialized this method of food
acquisition, are highly cleptobiotic
• invades nests of Melipona, Paratrigona and Tetragonisca or
hives of Apis mellifera
Jarau er al (2010)
• attacked nests emit strong and lemon like odour. This is due to
secretion of stereisomers of citral i.e., geranial and neral in ratio
of 2:1

27. WHY SHOULD WE USE STINGLESS BEES FOR POLLINATION?
Features:
o Better pollination
o Survival in tropics
o Eco friendly
o Conservation
o Limited foraging distance
1. Green house pollination
2. Owner’s benefit-maximum

28. CROPS FOR WHICH STINGLESS BEES POLLINATION IS VALUABLE
Common name Family
Mango Anacardiaceae
Strawberry Rosaceae
Coconut Arecaceae
Chow chow Cucurbitaceae
Carambola Oxalidaceae
Lab lab Papilionaceae
Goose berry Euphorbiaceae
Heard et al (1999)
Flower preference:
 Generalist flower visitors
 Small flowers
Dense inflorescence
 Shorter corolla tube
 Wider corolla tube

29. Colony requirement
For most crops, 15 to 20 colonies per hectare are usually
recommended for effective pollination. However, if
natural pollinators are scarce, additional hives may be
necessary.

30. Treatments Initial
fruit/ 20
panicles
Fruit
drop/ 20
panicles
Fruits
harvested/
20 panicles
Fruit
weight (g)
TSS (%)
Trigona
iridipennis
67.5 36.25 31.25 580.1 25.04
Apis florea 52.42 23.32 29.1 480.23 24.02
Apis cerana 44.4 18.2 26.2 390.17 24.50
Open pollination 58.2 32.3 26.5 475.25 24.1
Mean 55.63 27.51 28.26 481.43 24.39
EFFICIENCY OF DIFFERENT POLLINATION MODES ON FRUIT
YIELD AND QUALITY OF MANGO

31. Percentage of malformed Sweet pepper (Restricted pollination)
Treatments Fruits (no.) Malformed fruits (%)
Hand cross pollination 32 13
Pollination by Melipona subnitida 59 17
Hand self pollination 33 45
Self pollination 50 48
Treatments Fruits (no.) Fruit set
No. (%)
Hand cross pollination 50 41 82
Pollination by Melipona subnitida 60 42 70
Hand self pollination 66 45 68
Self pollination 50 37 74
Percentage of fruit set in Sweet pepper (Restricted pollination)
Cruz (2004)

32. Effect of stingless bee pollination on Quantitative yield
parameters of sunflower
Treatments No. Of
filled
seeds/he
ad
No.
Unfilled
seeds/
head
Total
no. Of
seeds
Percent
seed set
1000
seed
wt.(g)
Yield/
m2
Oil
content
Crops caged and
enclosed with
stingless bees
469.2 269.6 776.8 59.22 61.5 380.74 38.06
Crops caged for
avoiding
pollinators
29.4 634.4 666.8 4.91 55.5 11.73 NT
Open pollination 638.4 45.20 679.8 93.93 61.0 917.3 36.57
Roopa (2002)

33. Pollination in white clover in green house conditions
Treatments Average weight of
flower head (g)
Yield weight/
0.75 m2 (g)
Trigona carbonaria 4.7 4.0
Scaptatrigona bipunctata 7.1 7.9
Bombus terrestria 16.6 19.4
Apis mellifera 14.2 17.0
Two colonies of each left in 0.2 ha area of green house conditions
Reasons for poor performance
 Since green house (0.2ha) was too spacious for stingless bees
 may not be actually habituated yet
 Most gathered around ceiling facing sun and causing wear and
tearing of colony

34. STRENGTH OF STINGLESS BEES IN POLLINATION
 Floral consistency
 Domestication
 Perennial colonies
 Large foods reserves are stored in nests
 Polylecty and adoptibility
 Forager recruitment
How to get best pollination by the stingless bees
 Suitable crops
 Pollination of non crop species
 Buzz pollination
 Important of natural vegetation
 Response to weather
 Flight activity of colonies
 Flight range
 Pesticides

35. ADVANTAGES OF STINGLESS BEES FOR CROP POLLINATION
Harmless
Native species
Thrive in tropical climates
Glass house pollination
Pest and disease less
Swarms don’t move far away
ADVANTAGES TO FARMERS
Safety
Medicinal honey
Restricted foraging
Easy management
Easy transportation
Low cost technology
Economical

36. Nesting site
Colony availability
Meliponiculture
Small colony size
Slow growth rate
Territoriality
DISADVANTAGES TO FARMERS
FUTURE THRUST
Species identity
Effective pollinating species
Documentation of crops benefited
Multiplication technology
Management for pollination

37. Summary:
 Stingless bees are generalist flower visitors
 Pollination by stingless bees in sunflower recorded a yield/m2 of 380.74g,
in Niger 18.50g and in Chow chow fruit set was 62.66%
 Under foraging and pollination behaviour in onion crop pollinated by
stingless bees recorded maximum fruits/umbel i.e., 202
 When honey samples from Trigona iridipennis have been analyzed.
Moringa oleifera was the crop which is maximum benefited i.e., 33%
followed by Scaptatrigona emerginatus 27%
 Under the study of pollination efficiency of stingless bees Melipona
subnitida on green house pepper, it recorded a fruit set of 70%
 Stingless bees can be used as pollinators in greenhouse conditions
because of their adoptability and horizontal flight
 Flight range of stingless bees Melipona scutellaris is maximum i.e., 2800m
followed by Melipona bicolor which indicates that
 these are effective pollinators

38. Conclusion:
• crop pollinators both as wild and managed pollinators
• suitable social life for pollination
• challenge to their widespread are
a) lack of availability of large no. Of hives
b) dearth of knowledge of about pollination and
pollinators of stingless bees