Studies on Foraging Behaviour of Honeybees on Flowers of Rapeseed Crop
Nishismita Parida
Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
Braja Kishore Sahoo
Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
Satya Narayan Satapathy *
Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
Swoyam Singh
Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
Subhashree Subhasmita Paikaray
Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
Amrit Mohapatra
Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
This paper represents foraging behaviour of honeybees on the flowers of rapeseed crop; Apis cerana indica started foraging at 07.10hr and ceased their foraging activity at 17.25hr. Thus, the duration of foraging activity was 10.15hr which was maximum foraging period, followed by A. florea (08.00hr to 05.00hr and 09.00hr) and A. dorsata (07.50hr to 03.00hr and 07.10hr) respectively. A. cerana indica spent maximum time of 6.57 ± 0.43 sec/flower followed by A. dorsata 6.55 ± 0.26 sec/flower and and A. florea 4.4 ± 0.27 sec/flower. Maximum number of flowers visited by A. dorsata of 11.3 ± 2.3 flowers/ min then A. cerana indica of 9.7 ± 2.6 flowers/ min and A. florea of 6.3 ± 1.2 flowers/ min.
Keywords: Foraging, honey bee, rapeseed, A. cerana indica, A. dorsata, A. florea