Heterotrigona (Cockerell) stingless beehive architecture in the Pocut Meurah Intan Grand Forest Park, Aceh Besar District, Indonesia
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Abstract
Abstrak. Sriwahyuni D, Rizki A, Siregar Z, Suwarno. 2023. Heterotrigona (Cockerell) stingless beehive architecture in the Pocut Meurah Intan Grand Forest Park, Aceh Besar District, Indonesia. Pros Sem Nas Masy Biodiv Indon 9: 37-44. Colonies of several types of stingless bees have been developed in the Pocut Meurah Intan Grand Forest Park, Aceh Besar District, Indonesia. Stingless bees live in various spatial dimensions, such as hollow tree trunks, wooden boxes, wooden-house walls, and rock crevices. There are differences in the dimensions of stingless honeycomb spaces, which are known to create various nest architectures, one of which is Heterotrigona itama Cockerell. Detailed information about the nest architecture of H. itama has not been widely reported in the Pocut Meurah Intan Grand Forest Park. Therefore, this study aimed to describe the architectural patterns of the nests of five H. itama colonies in the Pocut Meurah Intan Grand Forest Park, Aceh Besar District, Indonesia. The method used in this study was direct observation of the hives, including the entrance's shape, color, and texture; the model and arrangement of the tiller cells; the color, size, and location of the pollen pots and honey pots. The results showed that the entrance to the nest of H. itama was light to dark brown, with a soft texture and a tube-like shape with a length of 2.5-18 cm. The nest structure of the five colonies of H. itama has architectural patterns with varying arrangements of tiller cells, pollen pots, and honey pots. The first colony shows the honey pot and pollen pot generally located on the top (above and separated), while the bee brood's cells are at the bottom in the cavity of the tree trunk. The second colony shows all the nest components in one wooden box, while the fifth colony shows all the nest components in a bottom hive wooden box. In the third and fourth colonies, all nest components are in tree trunk cavities of many sizes. The bee brood's cells in the five colonies of H. itama are arranged in horizontal layers and are located in the center of the nest. The tiller cells, pollen pots, and honey pots are oval, varying sizes for each hive.