VISITATION TIME OF APIS CERANA INDICA ON SOME FLOWERS IN A GORAKHPUR LOCALITY

Isaac L. Mathew and Deepak Singh*

ABSTRACT

Foraging activity of honey bees is greatly affected by the region and local conditions with higher foraging rate occurring at afternoon period. Judging the forage worthiness of resource depends on various benefit and cost assessment. The ability to use and learn colour to optimally discriminate profitable food sources from inefficient ones is prerequisite for an efficient foraging strategy. Visitation time of local honeybee Apis cerana indica on three flowers types of different colour was recorded in early summer in a Gorakhpur locality in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. Longest visitation time was on Mustard flowers with a mean of 23.97±6.99 sec, followed by sweet pea and hibiscus flowers with a mean of 16.60±4.24 sec and 10.22±2.74 sec respectively. The study validates the reported foraging strategies of bees based on colour stimulus, energetic value, handling time, flow rate and flight distance between flower.

Keywords: Apis, visitation time, foraging.