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Effect of Larval Food Amount on In-vitro Rearing of Queen Stingless
Bee, Heterotrigona Itama (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini)
Devadarsheene A/P Regena
Supervisor: Prof. Madya Dr Wahizatul Afzan Azmi
Co-supervisor: Prof. Madya Dr Shamsul Bahri Abd. Razak
Bachelor of Applied Science
(Biodiversity Conservation and Management)
School of Marine and Environmental Sciences
The in-vitro rearing of queen stingless bee is one of the efforts to increase the
colonies’ number in order to produce more stingless bee products such as
honey, propolis and bee bread. To date, there are limited studies on the
production of the stingless bee queens by manipulating the quantity of food to
the larvae. Thus, the aim of this study were to determine the growth rate of
the in-vitro rearing of queen stingless bee and to investigate the optimum
amount of larval food needed by larvae. Three different treatments of amount
of larval food were tested on the larvae and the measurement of head capsule
width was taken every week until the emergence stage. Results showed that
the diameter of head capsule of larvae increased from week 1 to week 11 but
there was no queen produced due to contamination of the treatment. Survival
rate was higher in 100µl of larval food compared to 120µl and 140µl. Further
studies is needed to improve the technique of the in-vitro rearing.
1687 | UMT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH DAY 2018