KERALA STATE COUNCIL FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND ENVIRONMENT

Application for Grant of Research Schemes under Ecology and Environment Schemes

“Study on diversity and ecology of non-Apis bees (Insecta: Hymenoptera) in the Thrissur kole wetlands to enhance pollinator conservation.”

Bees are pollen feeding aculeate insects which belongs to the order Hymenoptera. They play an important role in pollinating flowering plants ranging from forest trees to cultivated crop plants, fruits, vegetables, garden flowers, fiber crops and oil seed crops. Bees belongs to the superfamily Apoidea which comprises seven families including 20,507 species under 505 genera from the world (Ascher and Pickering, 2022).  Native bee diversity is posing so many threats. Being the pollinator of many crops and weeds, it may result in secondary extinctions.it is difficult to target appropriate habitats like natural and agroecosystems for their protection and develop appropriate management techniques for obtaining legal conservation status for these ecosystem service providers. most non-Apis bees are solitary foragers with diverse nesting habitats. Habitat heterogeneity is a crucial factor for bee diversity. Declining numbers in honeybees and various native bee species pose a threat to global pollination services. 

This study aims to investigate the native bee fauna in Thrissur kole wetlands which is the part of Vembanad-Kole, one of the declared Ramsar site of India. The ecosytem acts as a natural drainage system for the district and are highly productive and threatened wetlands in Kerala. Native kole wetlands provide food resources and nesting habitats for native non-Apis bees. Clean water sources also promote pollinator habitats in wetlands. However, we currently have a limited understanding of the diversity of non Apis pollinators in wetlands and even the baseline inventory is lacking, which is a prerquisite for biodiversity conservation efforts. It is presumed that this study would be instrumental to throw light into their diversity, host plant associations and spatio-temporal pattern of distribution. The present study proposes to make a preliminary investigation on non-Apis bee diversity in Kole wetlands and open the door to the taxonomic status of this least studied insect group