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ISSN 2063-5346

INVENTORY OF STINGLESS BEES BASED ON NESTING AND NEST TREES AT TUANAN ORANGUTAN RESEARCH STATION CENTRAL KALIMANTAN INDONESIA

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Retno Widowati, Rizky Gautama Maulana, Sri Suci Utami Atmoko
» doi: 10.31838/ecb/2023.12.s3.284

Abstract

Stingless bees act as the most important pollinators for many wild and topical plants including in the forests of Kalimantan Indonesian. The presence of stingless bees in the forests of Kalimantan is also determined by the presence of nest trees where the colonies live. This study aims to carry out an inventory of the types of stingless bees based on their nesting and nests trees at the Tuanan Orangutan Research Station (TORS) in the remote forests of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. The research was carried out by determining the placement of the plots. After finding the first nest in the nest tree, the researchers drew a plot measuring 20 x 20 meters and we searched for other nests and inventoried trees in the plot. There were nine plots which were considered to be the study sites. We took 10 stingless bees as samples from each nest and five individuals were preserved dry and wet. Identification was carried out at the National Research and Innovation Agency, Cibinong, West Java. Tree identification was carried out based on the information database in TORS. From that process, we found 13 nests of stingless bees in nine plots. The identification results showed three species of stingless bees, namely Tetragonula laeviceps, Lepidotrigona terminata and Tetrigona apicalis. There was only one type of nests tree which was used as a nest for stingless bees, namely Diospyros pseudomalabarica (tutup kabali). The three stingless bee’s species construct a unique, distinctive and different-shaped entrance so that it can be a sign of a nest where the stingless bee colony is located.

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