Nest architecture, thermoregulation and palynology of stingless bee Heterotrigona itama (Hymenoptera: Apidae, Meliponini)

Meliponiculture is the practice of handling the stingless bee for a lot of beneficial products including honey, bee bread and propolis. Heterotrigona itama is one of the most cultured species by bee keepers in Malaysia. This research focus on three main objectives which were; to measure the nest structure and nest development of H. itama, determination of thermoregulation activities of H. itama and pollen identification from pollen pot of H. itama. Five colonies of H.itama had been observed from September 2014 until August 2015 for the nest design and nest development including for temperature studies. Sampling had been done once a month. Meanwhile for palynology studies, the pollen sampling had been done 4 periods namely September 2014, December 2014, March 2015 and June 2015 from three district ; Jeli, Kota Bharu and Tanah Merah. One Way ANOVA had been conducted and result showed significance difference, p<0.05 for entance, brood height, brood diameter of pot, pollen area, pollen height, pollen height of pot, pollen diameter, honey area, honey, honey diameter pot, honey height of pot, honey number of pot and amount of honey. The internal and external nest architechture of nest of H. itama commonly alike and the growth changes were affected by the climate changes. Besides that, the mean temperature of the nest was recorded at 27.04°C± 0.91. There is significance difference for temperature, p<0.05 within the monthly period. Next, 17097 pollen had been counted based on 66 species of identified pollen within 37 families. There was significant difference between locations and total number of pollen. In conclusion, H. itama was found to be able to thermoregulate their nest and a good pollinator.