Vol. 7, Issue 11 (2018)

Author(s):
Harish Kumar Sharma, Shabnam Thakur, Kiran Rana and Meena Thakur

Abstract:
The B. haemorrhoidalis queens were collected while foraging on Adhatoda vasica, Brassica juncea, Hypericum oblongifolium, Papaver rhoeas, Scutellaria linearis, Cydonia oblonga and Antirrhinum majus from February to April. Bumble bee colonies were reared under laboratory condition by maintaining 27±1°C temperature and 65-70% relative humidity and fed with 50% sucrose solution and fresh/stored pollen collected from honeybee colonies. Success rate of colony development under laboratory was more in queens collected during April (60%) as compared to queens collected during March (31.25%) and February (16.67%). Similarly, the per cent successful establishment in the field was recorded more in queens collected during April (40%) in comparison to queens collected during March (18.75%).