Palynology of Heterotrigona itama

Abstract

Meliponiculture is the practice of handling the stingless bee for a lot of beneficial products including honey, bee bread, and propolis. Heterotrigona itama is one of the most cultured species by bee keepers in Malaysia. This research objective was pollen identification from pollen pot of H. itama. Five colonies of H. itama were observed from September 2014 until August 2015 for the foraging and pollen collection. Meanwhile, for palynology studies, the pollen sampling was done for four periods, which are September 2014, December 2014, March 2015, and June 2015. from three districts: Jeli, Kota Bharu, and Tanah Merah. One Way ANOVA was conducted, and results showed significant difference, p<0.05 for pollen area, pollen height of pot, pollen diameter, honey area, honey, honey diameter pot, honey height of pot, honey number of pot, and amount of honey. A total of 17,097 pollen were counted based on 66 species of identified pollen within 37 families. There was significant difference between locations and sampling period. The different geographical ranges determine various types of pollen.