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Foraging

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Honeybees of Asia

Abstract

Foraging preferences in relation to rewards (nectar and pollen) from flowers are considered in terms of floral constancy although there are species-specific variations in foraging activity. Considerations of foraging flight include speed, thermoregulation, flight patterns and intensity. These are in turn related to weather factors that greatly affect the commencement and cessation of foraging, diurnal trends in foraging, bee-size and nocturnal foraging. Matters of thresholds and timing, factor compensating mechanisms, and sequence and timing of bee visits are recorded. In a broader context resource partitioning, competition for floral resources and the influence of honeybees on other bee species are reviewed. Finally, organoleptic aspects in relation to flavour, taste and the colours of flowers and biochemical characters of host plants are discussed.

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  1. Division of Entomology, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Chatha, Jammu (J&K), 180 009, India

    D. P. Abrol

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    H. Randall Hepburn

  2. , Department of Statistics, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa

    Sarah E. Radloff

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Abrol, D.P. (2011). Foraging. In: Hepburn, H., Radloff, S. (eds) Honeybees of Asia. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16422-4_12

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