Foraging efficiency and food bait standardization in stingless bee,Tetragonula travancorica Shanas and Faseeh (Hymenoptera: Apidae:Meliponinae)

Stingless bees, Tetragonula travancorica (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponinae) are small to medium-sized eusocial bees predominantly found in tropical and subtropical regions. They have beendomesticated for centuries, primarily for crop pollination. The study mainly focused on standardizingfood bait and calculating the foraging distance of T. travancorica, a widely distributed stingless beespecies in peninsular India. The standardization of food bait was carried out using an artificial feedertechnique and the various food baits were evaluated including sugar, honey, and jaggery solutions of35, 50, and 75 per cent concentrations, among them, 35 per cent sugar solution was found to be themost effective food bait in attracting T. travancorica. The average foraging distance of stingless was378 m with a minimum foraging distance of 100 m and a maximum of 400 m. The number of beesattracted to the food bait decreased with the increases in the foraging distance. The study emphasizesthe importance of bait concentration, strategic placement of stingless bee colonies for enhancingpollination efficiency and provides insights for advancing meliponiculture and pollination strategies.