Foraging
activity of Indian honey bee, Apis cerana in relation to ambient
climate variables under tropical conditions
P. V. Rami Reddy1*,?
T. Rashmi1 and Abraham Verghese2
1Division of
Entomology and Nematology, Indian Institute of Horticultural Research,
Bengaluru-560 089, India
2National Bureau
of Agriculturally Important Insects, Bengaluru?560 024, India
*Corresponding
Author?s E-mail: pvreddy@iihr.ernet.in
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Publication Data
Paper received:
23 November 2013
Revised received:
15 March 2014
Accepted:
05 May 2014
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Abstract
Climate
plays a significant role in influencing the foraging activity and behavior of
social insects especially honey bees. Studies were conducted at Indian
Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru, India during 2011-13, to
assess the effect of four abiotic factors viz., temperature, relative
humidity, rainfall and wind speed on the foraging activity of Indian honey
bee, Apiscerana F. Foraging activity was determined in terms of the
number of worker bees going out of hive to forage and those coming in with
pollen or nectar, per five minutes. Daily observations were recorded three
times at 8.00 a.m., 12.00 noon and 4.00 p.m. Significant diurnal and seasonal
variations were recorded in the foraging activity. Among all climatic
factors, maximum temperature (>30oC)was the most crucial one which had
negatively affected bee activity with correlation coefficients of -0.72,
-0.59 and -0.61 for outgoing bees, pollen and nectar collectors respectively.
Regression equation explained up to 68% variation in the number of bees
moving out due to maximum temperature. The number of worker bees going out to
forage came down significantly at temperature beyond 30?C. Contrary to this,
the minimum temperature showed a positive impact on outgoing bees (r = 0.66)
and nectar collectors (r = 0.67) while pollen collectors showed no
significant correlation. The relative humidity also showed positive impact on
the frequency of worker bees moving out of hive (r = 0.69) and those coming
in with nectar (r = 0.68) but negatively affected the number of pollen
collectors. Diurnal variations showed peak activity of bee foragers between
6.00 and 10.00 a.m. Rainfall hampered foraging activity while wind speed was
found to have no significant effect on bee activity.
Key
words
Apis
cerana, Climate, Foraging, Honey bee, Temperature
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