Honey-producing bee–pollen–vegetation relationships in the West Coast and Western Ghats of India

Abstract

The ecosystem services offered by honey-producing bees are highly significant for the fertilization of flowers to produce fruits and seeds. The pollen found on bees and in honeycombs and honey represents the type of vegetation visited by the bees. The pollen diversity of honeycombs built by four honey-producing bees of the west coast and Western Ghats of India was evaluated to identify the floral sources. A spectrum of 54 pollen types (belonging to 52 genera in 34 families) was identified on the west coast, while 94 pollen types (belonging to 73 genera in 41 families) were identified in the Western Ghats. The results show that the bees of the four species on the west coast visited a limited number of plant species to gather nectar but included a higher quantity of total pollen of specific plant species. In the Western Ghats, the same species of bees visited more plant species but obtained lower quantities of pollen of specific plant species. This study shows that the honey-producing bees of the west coast and the Western Ghats prefer multifloral nectar for the production of honey. Floral resources for honey-producing bees are more diverse in the Western Ghats than on the west coast of India. Such differences might influence the quality (physical and nutraceutical) of honey produced by the bees in different geographic regions.

Keywords:

• Apis
• Trigona
• honeycomb
• palynology
• endemic flora
• endangered flora

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Mangalore University and the Department of Biosciences, Mangalore University, for providing the facilities to carry out this study. We express our gratitude to Prof. Shivanna, K.R., Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Bangalore, India, for constructive suggestions. We are thankful to Dr. Mahadevakumar S., Kerala Forest Research Institute, Kerala, India, for rendering technical service. We are indebted to two anonymous referees for their constructive suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shrihari Hegde

SHRIHARI HEGDE is a consultant at Bioversity International, working on the human–honeybee conflict in the Asian megacity of Bangalore, India. Hegde completed a master’s in environmental science at Mangalore University, India. Other research interests include apiculture, pollination biology, plant–pollinator networks and landscape ecology.

Kodandoor Sharathchandra

KODANDOOR SHARATHCHANDRA is a guest faculty member at the Department of Biosciences, Mangalore University, India. His research focuses on freshwater biology, including water quality parameters and their impact on the distribution of algae and cyanobacteria. His research interests include assessment of the bioactive potential of some endemic plants, and natural products like floral honey and macrofungi, of the Western Ghats. He is currently working on nutritional, functional and medicinal attributes of specific mushrooms from the scrub jungles of the west coast of India. Other research interests include the production and quality assessment of various organic manures and the effective utilization of agricultural residues to produce bio-enzymes through solid-state fermentation.

Kandikere R. Sridhar

KANDIKERE R. SRIDHAR is a senior professor in the Department of Biosciences, Mangalore University, India. His main areas of research include the diversity and ecology of fungi of the Western Ghats, mangroves and maritime habitats. He has carried out research pertaining to food technology, mushroom biology, coastal sand dune legumes and myriapodology relating to the Western Ghats and west coast of India.