Biology and pest assessment for sap beetle, Haptoncus luteolus (Erichson), a stingless bee pest

Meliponiculture is one of the economic importance and now a growing industry in Malaysia. However, Haptoncus luteolus (Erichson) were found infesting stingless bee colonies such as Trigona thoracica, Heterotrigona itama and Tetragonula laeviceps in Kelantan, This study was conducted to determine the life stages of H. luteolus, access their food preference, fecundity and assess the damage of H. luteolus on bee brood. Adult beetles were fed with Diet 1 ( control diet), Diet 2 (yeast) and Diet 3 (bee brood) and was conducted in laboratory condition of 26.16 ± 2.5°C and 75.34 ± 6.98% humidity. Results show there were no significant difference found of diets on the pre-oviposition period (p = .075), egg duration (p = .177), larva duration (p = .082), pupating duration (p = :083), pupation duration (p = .094), and life cycle (p = .335). Haptoncus lutoelus undergo life stages from egg to larva then turned to pupa followed by adult. Haptoncus lutoelus fed with Diet 3 shows minimum pre-oviposition periods (1.43 ± 0.79 days) and shorter life cycle (20.14 ± 0.90 days) than other diets. Thus, concluded bee brood as their most preferable diet. In addition finding shows H. luteolus is capable to undergo their life cycle in , bee brood as they feed, reproduce and pupating on bee brood in all three Haptoncus luteolus undergo life stages much faster in one pair samples. sample than the other sample. Therefore, we hypothesized that bee brood undergo great damage as more beetles present in sample.