An innovative height adjustable contraption designed to sample bees from forested areas of lateritic tracts of Midnapore, West Bengal, India.

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Research Paper 01/05/2014
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An innovative height adjustable contraption designed to sample bees from forested areas of lateritic tracts of Midnapore, West Bengal, India.

Manjishtha Bhattacharyya, Manoj Kr. Bhattacharyya, Susanta Kumar Chakraborty
J. Biodiv. & Environ. Sci. 4(5), 258-265, May 2014.
Copyright Statement: Copyright 2014; The Author(s).
License: CC BY-NC 4.0

Abstract

Sampling bees in forested areas from floral assemblages at different heights above ground possess serious problems to bee researchers. Active netting is not possible at that height. Passive trapping using food baits and water, although more promising, yield low catch-rates due to their restrictive placement. A unique adjustable contraption, an adaptation and modification of existing designs, has been devised to trap bees by placing the same in the flight-path of the bees. Four month long sampling from deciduous forests of lateritic tracts of West Midnapore district of West Bengal, India, shows significant success in trapping pollinator bees at canopy height using this device, with minimum effort and trouble on part of the sampler, thereby increasing sampling efficiency and reducing sampler bias.

Bhattacharyya M, Chakraborty SK. 2012. Comparison of trapping methods for studying pollinating bees. In: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Environmental Impacts, Health Implications and Therapeutic Approaches (ISEHT), Vikrama Simhapuri University, Nellore, AP, p.107.

Droege S. 2009. The Very Handy Manual: How to Catch and Identify Bees and Manage a Collection. A USGS Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Laboratory Publication. p. 02-13.

Drummond FA, Groden FE, Prokopy RJ. 1984. Comparative efficacy and optimal positioning of traps for monitoring apple maggot flies (Diptera: Tephritidae). Environmental Entomology 13, 232– 235.

Grundel R, Frohnapple KJ, Jean RP, Pavlovic NB. 2011. Effectiveness of Bowl Trapping and Netting for Inventory of a Bee Community. Environmental Entomology 40(2), 374-380.

Roulston TH, Smith SA, Brewster AL. 2007. A comparison of pan trap and intensive net sampling techniques for documenting a bee (Hymenoptera: Apiformes) fauna. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society, 80, 179–181.

Surcica A, Droege S. 2010. Height adjustable bee bowl traps. Penn. State Co-Operative Extension, Pennsylvania, USA. http://www.slideshare.net/ sdroege/height-adjustable-bee-bowltraps

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