Faculty of Science - Department of Biology Universiteit Utrecht

Pobox 80056, 3508 TB, Utrecht, The Netherlands. Tel: +31 620026754, Email

Research projects supervised in Costa Rica and neighbouring countries

Improvement of management of aggressive honeybees and perspectives for traditional meliponiculture


Melipona beecheii, cell provisioning and oviposition process.

Melipona beecheii, cell provisioning and oviposition process; worker egg is placed vertically on liquid larval food in cell.


Pollination and honey production with Apis mellifera in the American tropics
Honeybees are very important pollination agents in agricultural systems. For several crops in Costa Rica, e.g. melon, the production depends mainly on pollination by Apis mellifera. Honey production by Apis mellifera is an important economic industry in several countries of the American tropics. In Central America beekeeping is practised at a large scale (apiaries with thousands of hives) but also very commonly, as a very rewarding sideline activity, by small local beekeepers. Various important ecological backgrounds still have to be studied, e.g. the major food sources of honeybees in the natural environment.
 
Bee health
Honeybees are worldwide attacked by various diseases and pests. Some of these have also arrived in the American tropics. In Costa Rica important research is being done on the biology of parasitic mites and on the incidence and backgrounds of bacterial diseases of honeybees. The objective: how to control these problems without using chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
 
Communication in Stingless Bees
Stingless Bees (Apinae, Meliponini) are the indigenous colony-living and honey producing bees of the American Tropics. These bees are very interesting for their fascinating social behaviour. Like in honeybees, Stingless Bees have complicated systems for communication (e.g. for food-source indication). The diversity within this group of social bees offers important opportunities for the study of evolution of communicative behaviour. Worldwide about 500 species are known, and in Costa Rica about 60 species are present. The largest of these are of the size of a Bumblebee, whereas the smallest Stingless Bees are representing the smallest bees on earth with just a few mm. of body length.
 
Bee-foodplant relations
The group of the bees (Apoidea) is considered as a group of insects that evolved as a group of specialized wasps feeding their offspring with pollen. Bees typically forage on flowers to collect pollen (protein diet component) and nectar for their food. Social bees with long-lasting colonies, like the honeybee and Stingless Bees, have to collect large amounts from these plant products, also as storage for unsuitable seasonal or climatic conditions. Through this behaviour bees are considered as the most important pollinators.
 
Behavioural ecology of tropical Bumblebees
Bumblebees (Apinae, Bombini) are typically bees of temperate climates. In temperate environments, like in The Netherlands and Canada, Bumblebees, overwinter through a hibernating solitary queen. In spring queens emerge and start the building of a nest that will only last for one season. In some tropical regions, e.g. in cooler mountainous areas, some Bumblebee species occur. Their biology is poorly known, and the social organisation and colony dynamics of these species has urgently to be studied. Some of these tropical species offer possibilities for being used in agricultural pollination systems (e.g. in crops cultivated under enclosed conditions).
 
Management of Honeybees (Apis mellifera) in Central America
Since the invading Africanized bees crossed the Panama canal in 1982, these bees have now spread all over Central America and the southern part of the USA. Beekeepers still import European queen bees from breeders in hawai etc., but most honey production takes place with Africanized Bees. These bees have pronounced self defensive behaviour and various other behavioural characteristics. Adapted hive management of Africanised honeybees is an important research topic at the CINAT bee research centre in Costa Rica. Special management should not only exist of managing small apiaries at large distances from urbanisations and public roads using good protective equipment. It should also be based on the biology of these highly defensive bees. Through special management, problems, e.g. the high swarming rate of colonies and absconding behaviour, can be dealt with more efficiently. Many Costa Rican beekeepers demonstrate that Africanized bees can be good honey producers. In fact, after the introduction of these bees, production has improved.
 
Meliponiculture (stingless beekeeping) in Costa Rica
Central America and the southern part of Mexico are the most famous parts of the world with traditional stingless beekeeping ("meliponiculture"). Before beekeeping with European Apis mellifera was introduced, the Maya indians and other pre-colombian cultures in meso-america had sophisticated systems of stingless beekeeping. Unfortunately, meliponiculture is declining rapidly all over Central America. In Costa Rica, several regions are still known for their traditional meliponiculture. Especially in the area around Nicoya meliponiculture can be found. The CINAT research institute, in collaboration with Utrecht University, is working on the improvement and conservation of this old tradition and on biological bases for its development. Meliponiculture courses are held in the rural areas, where the prospects for keeping these bees near the rural homes are shown. As a result, various groups of rural women have taken up this activity through cooperative organisations.

A colony of large sized stingless bees can produce some litres of honey. The most important of these is M. beecheii, "Jicote gato". It is kept in the peninsula of Nicoya and other parts of Guanacaste. In the area of Perez Zeledon and in the area of the Carare natural park, colonies of a dark variety of the species M. fasciata, called "Jicote barcino", are kept. Traditional owners keep their "Jicotes" in large logs, hanging under the roof of the house, or under special roofings. All farmers consider their hives as very valuable, especially because of the medicinal properties assigned to the honey. This honey can be sold at a very high price.
The small stingless bee Tetragonisca angustula, locally called "Mariola", is frequently and all over the country kept in small boxes, calabashes or bamboo pipes. Production is low, but the honey of these bees is mainly used as a medicine and sold to local pharmacies.
Ongoing deforestation is the major threat for this type of beekeeping, and in fact for the conservation of these important indigenous pollinators. This is mainly based on the short flight distance of stingless bees. In many instances it now becomes difficult for these bees to travel up and down from the "meliponaries" near the houses of people to good foraging sites. Nearby foraging areas are often being removed.

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Last update: 2018-11-19 / m.j.sommeijer@uu.nl