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Important Bee Plants for African and Other Stingless Bees

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Pot-Honey

Abstract

Stingless bees are distributed throughout tropical parts of the world with their highest abundance in the neotropics. Many studies suggest that stingless bees use a wide range of food plants, leading to overlap in pollen spectrum between bee species. A variety of tree species, shrubs, and agricultural crops provide pollen and nectar to the bees. Important food plant families include legumes (Mimosaceae, Caesalpiniaceae, Myrtaceae, Asteraceae, Moraceae, Anacardiaceae, Euphorbiaceae, and Solanaceae). The important plant life forms used (in order of importance) by stingless bees include trees, shrubs, herbs, climbers, and runners. Stingless bees nest in tree cavities, house wall crevices, and underground. Trees contain more nests, compared to the other nesting substrates. Some predominant plant families used for nesting are Anacardiaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Caesalpiniaceae, Dipterocarpaceae, and Lauraceae. Most stingless bee nests are located in large trees, with some trees holding multiple nests. Availability of tree cavities normally accounts for stingless bee nest aggregation in trees. Stingless bees build nests in tree cavities with bias towards lower heights.

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Acknowledgements

I acknowledge the important contribution of Prof. Carlos Rosa who helped by providing me with relevant literature for this chapter. Prof. Rosa also added some important relevant paragraphs to this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO), Rwebitaba Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute (ZARDI), 96, Fort Portal, Uganda

    Robert Kajobe

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  1. Robert Kajobe
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Correspondence to Robert Kajobe .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Zumba Sur, University of the Andes, Villa Del Rio 8, Merida, 5101, Venezuela

    Patricia Vit

  2. Av. Bandeirantes, 3900, Ribeirão Preto, 14040-901, São Paulo, Brazil

    Silvia R. M. Pedro

  3. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Ancon, Panama

    David Roubik

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Kajobe, R. (2013). Important Bee Plants for African and Other Stingless Bees. In: Vit, P., Pedro, S., Roubik, D. (eds) Pot-Honey. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4960-7_22

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