Received: Jan 19, 2021 / Published: Aug 10, 2021
Stingless bees are distributed in tropical and subtropical regions. There are over 16,000 species of stingless bees around the world, among which, 42 species are from Asia (Kerr & Maule, 1964). Sixteen species of stingless bees have been identified in Vietnam (Sakagami, 1975; Sakagami, 1978; Engel, 2000; Chinh et al., 2005; Rasmussen, 2008). In this study, the biological characteristics of Tetrigonilla collina, as a representative for Southeast Asian stingless bees, were observed and recorded. The worker cell dimensions were 5.30 ± 0.34mm in length by 4.28 ± 0.37mm in width with a volume of 45.02 ± 5.74mL (food volume: 19.05 ± 3.5mL; ratio: 42.27%). The new cells were mostly built in the morning (from 2:00 to 10:00 am) and the queen laid eggs (2.52 ± 0.81 sec per egg) and capped the cells in the afternoon (from 12:00 to 17:00 pm). The average worker-cell building period was 12.03 ± 3.78 hours. Mainly, six of first ten bees that inserted made food discharges in a cell. The food discharge occurred in a very short time, which was 1.58 ± 0.6 minutes. The new cell numbers of the colony were reduced at the end of the experimental period.
