Issue |
Apidologie
Volume 38, Number 3, May-June 2007
|
|
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Page(s) | 221 - 229 | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/apido:2007002 | |
Published online | 07 March 2007 |
DOI: 10.1051/apido:2007002
Biology of Apis dorsata in Vietnam
Nguyen Quang Tana, ba Department of Zoology and Museum of Natural History, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
b Department of Biology and Bee Research Unit, Nong Lam University, Thu Duc, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
(Received 12 January 2006 - Revised 28 August 2006 - Accepted 30 August 2006 - Published online 7 March 2007)
Abstract - This paper studies the biology of A. dorsata in the Melaleuca forest of
Vietnam. The width of 158 A. dorsata combs was from 43-162 cm, and the height from
23-90 cm. About 3-4 weeks after nesting, a colony could store 4.1
2.6 kg of honey. The thickness of the worker brood comb was
3.3 cm and of the drone was 3.7 cm, but that of the honey comb was possibly
19.0 cm. The width of 10 continuous drone cells (58.1
1.4 cm,
n = 90) is significantly larger than that of worker cells (55.7
1.7, n = 330). The depth of drone cells was 19.0
0.4 mm
(n = 90) and of worker cells was 17.4
1.5 mm (n = 225). The
weights of the newly emerged worker, drone and queen bees were 159.9
15.5 mg (n = 30), 168.5
10.4 mg (n = 30), and
272.0
40.1 mg (n = 9), respectively. Development time from
egg to adult was 19.7
0.1 days (n = 30) for workers, 23.7
days for drones, and 16.5 days for queen bees. When a colony reached 121 cm
57 cm in size, it built 9.7
2.4 (n = 32 nests) natural
queen cells. The volume of a queen cell was 1.300
0.159 mL (n
= 28).
Key words: Apis dorsata / biology / nest / development time / weight / biometry
Corresponding author: nqtan@hcm.vnn.vn
© INRA, DIB-AGIB, EDP Sciences 2007