1Department of Agricultural Entomology, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai
2Centre for Plant Protection Studies
3Centre for Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology
4Horticulture College and Research Institute, Periyakulam
5Department of Agricultural Entomology, Centre for Plant Protection Studies
6Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai, TNAU, Coimbatore, 641003, Tamil Nadu, India
*Email: balajikk111@gmail.com (corresponding author): ORCID ID 0009-0004-1656-0739
Online Published on 20 April, 2024.
Stingless bees also referred to as meliponine bees and morphological characteristics of these differ depending on are the species and environmental kinds. The current study explores morphology and morphometrics of Tetragonula iridipennis Smith in Tamil Nadu, India. The morphometrics of worker bees were compared over locations. The bees captured in the Kolli hills were significantly larger than those collected elsewhere. The mean value of head length (HL) (1.43 mm), head width (HW) (1.68 mm), antennal length (AL) (1.98 mm), hind leg length (HLL) (3.54 mm) and forewing length (FL) (3.84 mm) were recorded. The results revealed variance of four principal components (PC) reaching 82.4%, as (PC1) 38.58%, (PC2) 20.95%, (PC 3) 19.75% and (PC4) 8.10%. The characters of FL, HW, FW (forewing width), HLL, AL, OOD (ocello ocular distance), HTW (hind tibial width) and HL were the most discriminative in the principal component analysis.
Stingless bee, Tetragonula iridipennis, Worker bees, Morphometry, Head length, Hind leg length, Forewing length, Principal component analysis
