New records of less documented honeybee species in the Northwest
Chair of the topic Ms. Tran Thi Ngat observing honey bee samples under a floating magnifying glass
Less documented honeybee species and potential stingless bee groups
With an outstanding pollinator role, honeybee species receive great attention from scientists around the world. To date, more than 20,000 species belonging to 07 families have been discovered worldwide. In addition to varieties with a rich number of species, there exist very few species and information on biological characteristics is limited, including bee groups.
Stingless bees belong to the smallest group of honey-producing social bees of the family Apidae. The world has now found more than 500 species belonging to 40 varieties of this group. In Vietnam, 10 species of stingless bees belonging to 04 varieties have been discovered. Products (honey, pollen and propolis) created from this group of bees have many uses in medicine. However, so far there have been no studies on the nest structure, morphology of development stages for the process of domestication and development of this bee colony.
The Northwest is an area with a rich species composition, especially where there is potential to discover less documented bee species as well as discover new taxons for science.
New Recognition for Science
From the above fact, Ms. Tran Thi Ngat and her colleagues have proposed and been approved by Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology to implement the project: "Discovery of Hymenoptera: Apoidea in some northwestern provinces of Vietnam and biological characteristics of bees with economic potential" (code: DTTE00.04/22-23). The less documented species mentioned in this study are species of the genus with a small number of species and narrow distribution, including species new to scientific record/species new to Vietnam or species already recorded in Vietnam but lacking information on distribution and biological features.
Within the framework of the study, scientists have identified 18 species of little-referenced bees belonging to 04 families Apidae, Halictidae, Megachilidae and Mellitidae in the Northwest region. In particular, Ms. Tran Thi Ngat and colleagues have discovered and described 01 new subrace for science (Noteriadina Engel, Tran & Nguyen, 2022), 01 new species (Ebaiotrigona Engel & Nguyen, 2022), 02 new species (Bathanthidium paco Tran & Nguyen, 2021 and Noteriades hangkia Tran, Engel & Nguyen, 2022) and 03 new species recorded for the Vietnamese fauna including Thrinchostoma sladeni (Cockerell, 1929), Anthidiellum carinatum (Wu, 1962) and Chelostoma aureocinctum (Bigham, 1897).
The team showed that Lepidotrigona flavibasis has potential in domestication, breeding and hive development, aiming for commercial farming to exploit their products and use as pollinators on certain crops in the study area. At the same time, scientists have provided data on the nest structure and morphology of the most potential stages of development of the most potential bee (Lepidotrigona flavibasis) in the Northwest, as a basis for the domestication and development of this bee colony.
Photo of stages of development of the species Lepidotrigona flavibasis
The results of the project were classified excellent by VAST Acceptance Council with 03 publications in SCIE journal (Q1) and 01 domestic publication under VAST02 and supported the training of 01 PhD student. Scientific research and the products of the project are important contributions to biodiversity in the Northwest region as well as orientation for the development of bee species with high economic potential, in addition to these results can be used as a reference and teaching for subjects related to the field of species diversity insect.
Translated by Phuong Ha
Link to Vietnamese version
