Abstract
Melittopalynology is a discipline that focuses on pollen collected by bees and is useful in the knowledge of the crops and plants that are foraged by bees as their food source. However, reliable information on the local preference of stingless bee plants is highly limited and is clearly an important prerequisite for launching a meliponary industry in any locality. Thus, the main objective of this study was to identify the pollen collected by two common domesticated stingless bees Heterotrigona itama and Lepidotrigona terminata in two selected areas in Terengganu, east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. This study was conducted from November 2012 to September 2013. Among the common pollen grains collected by the stingless bees were Flacourtia jangomas, Lithocarpus sp., Mimusops elengi, Capsicum sp., Citrus hystrix and Murraya paniculata. This study provides information on the preferred pollen and floral types by local domesticated stingless bees which serve as pollen or nectar sources.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the School of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, for the financial support of this study, Dr. Muhammad Radzali Mispan and Mohd Fahimee Jaapar from the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) for giving permission to conduct research in Taman Tropik Kenyir (TTK), Dr. Norul Badriah Hassan from Universiti Sains Malaysia Kubang Kerian for giving permission to conduct this study on her apiary, Tuan Haji Muhamad Embong for the assistance during the identification of pollens and Tuan Haji Muhammad Razali Salam, Mr. Johari Mohd Nor and Mr. Syed Ahmad Rizal for their guidance and assistance during sampling and laboratory session. Special thanks to Dr. D.W. Roubik for the critical review of the manuscript and Mr. J.E. Moreno-P for kindly checking the scientific names of all the plants. The study was supported by KETENGAH (Lembaga Kemajuan Terengganu Tengah), Terengganu State and Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT).
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Ghazi, R., Zulqurnain, N.S., Azmi, W.A. (2018). Melittopalynological Studies of Stingless Bees from the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. In: Vit, P., Pedro, S., Roubik, D. (eds) Pot-Pollen in Stingless Bee Melittology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61839-5_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61839-5_6
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