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


How to Cite

Parida , Nishismita, Braja Kishore Sahoo, Satya Narayan Satapathy, Swoyam Singh, Subhashree Subhasmita Paikaray, and Amrit Mohapatra. 2023. “Studies on Foraging Behaviour of Honeybees on Flowers of Rapeseed Crop”. International Journal of Environment and Climate Change 13 (11):707-12. https://doi.org/10.9734/ijecc/2023/v13i113216.