CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

 1.1 Biology of Stingless Bees

Stingless bees are widely distributed and adapted to the tropical and neotropical ecosystems of the world but the genus Meliponula is unique to Africa (Eardley, 2004; Henske and Krausa et al., 2015). There are several hundreds of species existing worldwide, which vary considerably in colour, body and colony size (Roubik, 1992; Michener, 2000). It is estimated that 400 to 500 different species of stingless bees are known, but new species are identified every year. The number of bees a colony can contain ranges from some few hundred to more than a hundred thousand bees; however, this differs from species to species (FAO, 2009).

The nest environment is structured by activities of the colony members and also by individual behavior. This process is called stigmergy (Grassé, 1959) and plays an important role in task coordination and the regulation of building activities in many social insects (Theraulaz and Bonabeau, 1995). Foragers are a rich source of information to nest mates. They may provide detailed information on food source location to naive foragers (Nieh, 2004) and to experienced foragers (Biesmeijer and de Vries, 2001). Competition for food is most intense between more similar individuals, i.e. conspecifics from different nests (Johnson, 1974). Diets of conspecific nests are more similar than of heterospecific nests (Biesmeijer and van Nieuwstadt, 1997; Biesmeijer et al., 1999; Nagamitsu et al., 1999; Eltz et al., 2001). Stingless bees comprise a highly diverse and abundant group of eusocial bees that inhabit the tropical and subtropical parts of the world.They form perennial colonies from which they forage year-round.

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