NEW DELHI, Aug 17: Very little is known about the species diversity, population trends and behavioural traits of native bee species. To fill up this lacuna, a museum at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru, has begun collection of bees where species from all over the Northeast and other parts of the country are kept for further research and studies.
“So far, we have specimens from all the different honey bee species, including the giant honey bees Apis dorsata, Apis laboriosa, Apis binghami and Apis breviligula. Of the four, Apis laboriosa is particularly a spectacular species largely because it usually nests on inaccessible cliff crevices in the Himalayas,” Museum and Collections in-charge at NCBS, HM Yeshwanth, said.
Three scientists from NCBS-Axel — Brockmann, Sanjay Sane and Krushnamegh Kunte — are a part of a collaborative study with over 74 scientists from 13 Asian countries, working to chart a roadmap to take the Asian bee research forward. “In fact, the very first idea for this initiative goes back to the second ‘Bangalore Meeting on Asian Bees’ held at NCBS in March 2019, which brought together Asian bee researchers working on taxonomy, behavior, and conservation,” said Brockmann, whose research focuses on the ecology and behavior of honey bees and bumblebees, native to India.
In addition to honey bees, the museum also has a unique collection of 1,200 bumble bee specimens belonging to 24 different species from Northeast India. These were collected by Brockmann and his collaborators from Germany and the Rajiv Gandhi University in Arunachal Pradesh.
Rapid global decline of insect pollinators, especially bees in the last few decades, has alarmed entomologists and ecologists, giving rise to numerous scientific studies and citizen science projects to collect data on species diversity, behavioural traits. This is done with a view to identify the factors responsible for it.
In addition to this, a wide array of conservation and management solutions to curb the dwindling numbers of bees and other pollinators have also been put forward, in the Northeast including Meghalaya where commercial beekeeping is encouraged.
