Native bees are important pollinators of cultivated and wild plants. Although much importance has been accorded them in many countries of the world, India has largely ignored the role of these important ecosystem service providers for too long. The consequence is public apathy toward these beneficial insects. This study has attempted to find out the general ''bee awareness'' of people living in agrarian societies in a socioeconomically underdeveloped Indian district through picture-based questionnaire surveys and has also attempted to determine the effectiveness of information divulgation in changing people's perception toward native bees. Opinion of the people on honeybee health in this district has also been explored. It has been found that traditional knowledge of bees is largely restricted to the honey-producing species of the genus Apis, and even though other native species are frequently encountered by the people, there is a substantial lack of awareness about their true nature and importance. However, the study suggests that through right training, this situation may favorably be altered. Multiple regression analysis of socioeconomic factors determining bee knowledge of respondents revealed that women were > 4 times better at identifying native bees than men, both with or without given information, and the higher the level of education the better people were at identifying native bees. People considered pesticides and their irregular application to be the major killers of honeybees. This study generates hope for involvement of local people in native as well as honeybee conservation and management through proper awareness campaigns and right education.

Increased atmospheric temperatures may negatively affect the ecology, biology, and physiology of insect pollinators by increasing asynchrony between pollinator foraging and flowering of angiosperms. Apis florea F. (Hymentoptera: Apidae) is an important pollinator of vegetables and spice plants in India and, compared to other honeybee species native to Asia, tolerates higher temperatures. We tested the effects of three temperatures (25°C ± 0.5°C, 35°C ± 0.5°C, and 42°C ± 0.5°C) on changes in proboscis extension reflex (PER) in A. florea in response to increasing sucrose concentrations (3%, 10%, 30%, 40%, 50%, and 70% w/v). Across the six sucrose concentrations, the mean %PER scores of A. florea exposed to 25°C ± 0.5°C were significantly higher than those at 35°C ± 0.5°C and 42°C ± 0.5°C, although the mean %PER scores at 35°C ± 0.5°C and 42°C ± 0.5°C did not vary significantly. This result suggests a possible reduction in A. florea feeding motivation at temperatures above 25°C, which may negatively affect their winter foraging patterns. This could be especially problematic with rising minimum air temperatures in the semiarid lateritic belts of West Bengal, India.

No abstract

No abstract