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All issues Volume 38 / No 3 (May-June 2007) Apidologie, 38 3 (2007) 221-229 Abstract
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Issue
Apidologie
Volume 38, Number 3, May-June 2007
Page(s) 221 - 229
DOI https://doi.org/10.1051/apido:2007002
Published online 07 March 2007
Apidologie 38 (2007) 221-229
DOI: 10.1051/apido:2007002

Biology of Apis dorsata in Vietnam

Nguyen Quang Tana, b

a  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 $\pm$ 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 $\pm$ 1.4 cm, n = 90) is significantly larger than that of worker cells (55.7 $\pm$ 1.7, n = 330). The depth of drone cells was 19.0 $\pm$ 0.4 mm (n = 90) and of worker cells was 17.4 $\pm$ 1.5 mm (n = 225). The weights of the newly emerged worker, drone and queen bees were 159.9 $\pm$ 15.5 mg (n = 30), 168.5 $\pm$ 10.4 mg (n = 30), and 272.0 $\pm$ 40.1 mg (n = 9), respectively. Development time from egg to adult was 19.7 $\pm$ 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 $\times$ 57 cm in size, it built 9.7 $\pm$ 2.4 (n = 32 nests) natural queen cells. The volume of a queen cell was 1.300 $\pm$ 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