Taxonomic notes on stingless bee Trigona (Tetragonula) iridipennis Smith (Hymenoptera: Apidae) from India
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Stingless Bees are a large and diverse taxon and more than 500 species are recorded worldwide. Based on the previous reports, totally seven species are reported from India. The present study reports male and female morphological characteristics of Tetragonula iridipennis belonging to Tetragonula subgenus in Nellithurai Village, Tamil Nadu, India. The species of Tetragonula group are extremely similar in the external morphology of the workers. The glabrous bands on mesoscutum of female bees and structure and arrangement of gonostylus and the penis valve of male bees are used to separate T. iridipennis from other species in this group. The identity of T. iridipennis is made based on the male and female key morphological characteristics in the previous literature.
Article Details
Authors own the copyright to the articles published in JoTT. This is indicated explicitly in each publication. The authors grant permission to the publisher Wildlife Information Liaison Development (WILD) Society to publish the article in the Journal of Threatened Taxa. The authors recognize WILD as the original publisher, and to sell hard copies of the Journal and article to any buyer. JoTT is registered under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY), which allows authors to retain copyright ownership. Under this license the authors allow anyone to download, cite, use the data, modify, reprint, copy and distribute provided the authors and source of publication are credited through appropriate citations (e.g., Son et al. (2016). Bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) of the southeastern Truong Son Mountains, Quang Ngai Province, Vietnam. Journal of Threatened Taxa 8(7): 8953–8969. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.2785.8.7.8953-8969). Users of the data do not require specific permission from the authors or the publisher.
References
Biesmeijer, K. (1993). Stingless bees: discussion and paper at the International symposium on pollination tropics Pegone, 1: 6-8.
Danareddi, C.S. & S. Viraktamath (2009). Morphometrical studies on the stingless bee, Trigona iridipennis Smith Karnataka Journal of Agricultural Sciences 22: 796-797.
Michener, C.D. (2000). The Bees of The World. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, xiv+[1]+913.
Michener, C.D. (2013). The Meliponini, pp. 3-17. In: Vit, P., S.R.M. Pedro & D.W. Roubik (eds.). Pot-Honey: A Legacy of Stingless Bees. Springer, New York.
Mohan, R. & S. Devanesan (1999). Dammer Bees, Trigona iridipennis Smith. (Apidae: Meliponinae) in Kerala. Insect Environment 5(2): 79.
Muthuraman, M. & P.A. Saravanan (2004). Utilization of Stingless Bees for crop pollination. Indian Bee Journal 66: 58-64.
Rasmussen, C.A. (2013). Stingless Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini) of the Indian subcontinent: Diversity, taxonomy and current status of knowledge. Zootaxa 3647(3): 401-428; http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3647.3.1
Rathor, V.S., C. Rasmussen & M.S. Saini (2013). New record of the Stingless Bee Tetragonula gressitti from India (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini). Journal of Melittology 7: 1-5.
Roubik, D.W. (1989). Ecology and Natural History of Tropical Bees. Cambridge University Press, New York, 514pp.
Sakagami, S.F. (1978). Tetragonula Stingless Bees of the continental Asia and Sri Lanka (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Journal of the Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University, Series VI, Zoology 21: 165-247.
Sakagami, S.F., S. Yamane & G.G. Hambali (1983). Nests of some southeast Asian stingless bees. Bulletin of the Faculty of Education, Ibaraki University (Natural Sciences) 32: 1-21.
Sakagami, S.F. & T. Inoue (1987). Stingless Bees of the genus Trigona (subgenus Trigonella) with notes on the reduction of spatha in male genitalia of the subgenus Tetragonula (Hymenoptera, Apidae). Kontyû 55: 610-627.
Schwarz, H.F. (1939). The Indo-Malayan species of Trigona. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 76: 83-141.
Vijayakumar, K. & K.R. Jayaraj (2013). Geometric morphometry analysis of three species of stingless bees in India. International Journal for Life Sciences and Educational Research 1(2): 91-95.
Vijayakumar, K., M. Muthuraman & R. Jayaraj (2012). Predation of stingless bees (Trigona iridipennis: Apidae, Meliponinae) by centipede (Scolopendra hardwicki: Chilopoda: Scolopendramorpha). International Journal of Advanced Life Sciences 5(2): 156-159.