In-vitro queen rearing protocol for stingless bee, Tetragonula iridipennis Smith

Abstract

South-East Asia falls behind in comparison to South America and Australia in beekeeping with stingless bees. This is partly contributed by the lack of proper management techniques and slow rate of natural colony multiplication in different bee species found in this part of the world. Production of natural queen bees in stingless bee colonies depends upon several factors, such as adequate nutrition, temperature regulation, seasonality, colony size, natural enemies among many others. The capacity to produce a large number of queen bees without depending upon the production of natural queen inside colonies makes in vitro rearing of stingless bee as a good help for the problem of slow colony multiplication. The present study describes in vitro queen rearing protocol for the Asian stingless bee, Tetragonula iridipennis Smith. The larval provision required for producing a queen bee was three times more than a natural worker bee. The in vitro queen bees were morphologically similar to the natural queens. The reproductive success of these in vitro queen bees also supported the proposed protocol. The technique would be useful in colony multiplication of this species at a faster rate and in developing management tactics for large-scale adoption in Indo-Malayan and Australasia regions.