Pollen Resources Partitioning of Stingless Bee Species (Tetrigona Apicalis (Smith)) (Hymenoptera:Apidae) from the Saiburi, Pattani, Thailand

Abstract

This is the first foraging plant and palynological study using pollen stored by Tetrigona apicalis (Smith) (Apidae: Meliponini) in the Saiburi, Pattani, Thailand. The samples were directly collected from the pollen pots of T. apicalis (Smith) species in apiaries located in the Pattani province. The samples were dried, weighed, diluted in warm water and ethanol, centrifuged and then processed using the acetolysis method. After mounting the pollen samples on the glass slides, we identified and counted at least 500 pollen grains per sample. The results show that the main and dominant pollen (over 10%) combinations in the pollen pots of T. apicalis (Smith) include pollen from Arecaceae (14.25%), Euphorbiaceae (12.33%),Polygonaceae (12.1%), Fabaceae (10.74%) andTalinaceae (10.63%) respectively. This result, we can use data for present to the stingless bee farm in the future.