© 2019 JETIR May 2019, Volume 6, Issue 5 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) DESCRIPTIONS OF IMMATURE STAGES OF CERATINA (PITHITIS) SMARAGDULA FABRICIUS (HYMENOPTERA, APOIDEA, APIDAE, XYLOCOPINAE, CERATININI)
Harshita Parmar
Department of Zoology, Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur 342005, India
Abstract: Many nests of Ceratina (Pithitis) smaragdula were discovered at the crop fields located between Jodhpur and Pali districts. The vacant tubes of Saccharum munja were used for building nests by the adult female bee. Many larvae and pupae were recovered from the nests made in the pith of the dried stems. This paper presents the description of larvae and mature pupae of Ceratina (Pithitis) smaragdula. the characteristics of both larvae and pupae are discussed and an analysis has been made with the character grid produced by previous authors on the same. Keywords: nest, bee, larva, pupa, Ceratina.
Bees comprise a highly diverse group of Hymenopterous insects. In the Western Rajasthan region the work pertaining to the immature stages and nesting biology of Indian non-Apis bees are rarely described. More systematic studies have been done on the adult bees than on their immature stages. Majority of the known species generally construct their nests in soil and most of the time involves a single pair of adults. Some wild bee species such as those of family Megachilidae, construct their nests independently with separate entrances. Also there are bees like those of family Halictidae that construct their nests in large aggregation and with one common entrance. Carpenter bees are one of the most fascinating non-Apis bees found in the western region of Rajasthan. Nests of both Xylocopa species (large carpenter bee) and Ceratina species (small carpenter bee) were found in abundance in dry lands of the state. Ceratina bees (small carpenter bees) are closely related to the more familiar large carpenter bees (Xylocopa species). This paper insisted upon the study of larvae and pupae of Ceratina (Pithitis) smaragdula. Ceratina smaragdula is a small, metallic-green carpenter bee native to Southeast Asia ( Hirashima 1969). The genus Ceratina comprises of about 350 species distributed throughout the world. Out of these larval stages of merely five Ceratina species have been studied. These five species are Ceratina dupla Say, Ceratina callosa (Fabricius), Ceratina cucurbitina (Rossi), Ceratina chalcites Latreille and one unnamed species of Ceratina. This paper presents the description of larvae and pupae of one of the species of genus Ceratina Latreille, namely Ceratina (Pithitis) smaragdula.
MATERIALS AND METHODS Several nests of many non-Apis, including those of Ceratina species, were observed during March-April in years 2016 to 2018 from crop fields of north-western Rajasthan region. The specific areas of this study were the districts of Jodhpur, Pali and nearby areas. These nests were constructed in the hollow tubes of Sachharum munja (moonj) that were placed in heaps near the crop fields. The nests were collected at the dusk time and the openings of the nests were closed with cotton to prevent the escape of adult bees present inside it. These nests were then brought to the laboratory and were opened after a week. after opening the nest, what so ever nesting material was found, it were preserved in glass vials containing a mixture of 70% alcohol and 0.5% formaldehyde. A total of six second/third/mature instar larvae and one mature pupae, along with three adult bees were recovered from the nest and were studied. Further the microscopic observations related to their morphology were done under the olympus stereozoom binocular microscope. Measurements were taken with the help of micrometer and the figures were drawn by using camera lucida.
OBSERVATIONS AND DESCRIPTIONS Third instar larva : Total length 8.2 mm. Body slender with rather distinct inter-segmental lines; Head capsule and mouth parts with minute setae and marginal thickening of head capsule weak; epistomal suture represented by a very feeble depression and weak thickening of the integument present between the anterior tentorial pits; antennal distinct; labroclypeal suture distinct; labral tubercle absent and labrum with apex subtruncate. Mandibles with bidentate apices; Maxillae with apices and maxillary palpi slightly wider than long; hypostomal suture is somewhat deep; labium with small salivary opening; distinct division between prementum and postmentum; Body lacks setae. Mature pupa : total length 12.1 mm. median length and width of head 1.15 & 2.1 respectively; integument with emerald green shining and with coarse punctures beneath the membrane; subtriangular labrum alongwith a broad tubercle at apex; ventral surface of mandible without tubercle; hypostome without tubercle; rostrum is quite prolong reaching beyond the thoracic segments. Pronotum slightly pale and its lateral extensions are tubercled; scutum has prominent longitudinal carina; metanotal protuberances are prominent; axilla is clear and produced to spine posteriorly; spine slightly deviated toward inside from the main axis. Tubercle and tegula absent in propodeum; wings with suppressed tubercle at the base; short tubercles present on mid and hind coxae; spine absent in median and hind hind trochanter; dorsal tibial apices of legs produced into spines. Apical JETIR1905119 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 108
© 2019 JETIR May 2019, Volume 6, Issue 5 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) margins of terum 3 to 5 with shining light brown fine bristles; few bristles present at the apical rim of tergum 2; as one moves towards tergum 5, the bristles gradually gets denser; bristles present on margins of tergum 6 as well as on the disc which are a bit denser than the preceding terga; on tergum 5 very minute integumental spines are present; prominent terminal spine found on tergum 6; broad and golden sternal apical rims present; sternum 6 resembles the tergum 6 with respect to its broadly conical apical margin.
fig.1 fig.2
fig.3
1. Fig.1 : mature larva 2. Fig.2 : dorsal view of head of larva 3. Fig.3 : mature pupa [A: terminal spine, AB: abdomen, AN: antenna, HL: hind leg, LM: labrum, M: mandible, MT: metanotum, ST: scutum, W: wing base]
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Present study describes the larvae and pupae on small carpenter bee. The little metallic green Ceratina (Pithitis) smaragdula was recorded nesting in the hollow stems of Saccharum munja in the western Rajasthan. The larvae observed were slender with distinct inter-segmental lining and had setae on the head capsule. The larval stages of various species of Ceratina are discussed by Michener (Michener, 1953). He also described the resemblance of pupa with the adult in taxonomic characters of identification. The pupal characteristics that are specific to pupae include presence of spines and projections arising from various body parts. A list describing about 23 pupal characters comprising of absence or presence of spicules and protuberances on the exterior of pupa had been given (Michener, 1954). The pupae can be of two kinds and discussed the difference between both types, although absence or presence of various types of tubercles and spines usually has a taxonomic significance (Yager & Rozen, 1966). In Ceratina smaragdula, the characters of long-tongued bee are clearly visible, such as those of legs, quite coarse punctures on integument and pale white pigmentation on different parts of the body that can be seen in case of mature pupa. In males of C. smaragdula, a unique feature has been decribed by Hirashima. He described that the males of this species have large excavated, longitudinal striated velvety black region on the 4th to 6th terga on either side of the midline (Hirashima, 1969). Shiokawa and Sakagami said that Ceratina waini is the only closely related species with velvety black area as that of Ceratina smaragdula but it is somewhat bluish in colour. Ceratina (Pithitis) smaragdula is distributed throughout the southern Asia, from western India to Japan, and from northern China to Indonesia (Van der Vecht, 1952; Hirashima, 1969; Shiokawa & Sakagami, 1969; Baker 1997) and also on Hawaiian Islands (Arakaki et al., 2001; Snelling, 2003). The nests studied during this study had a single enrance which was being guarded by a female. Nests had an average length of 11.25 to 5.45cm and with an average internal diameter of 0.45 to 0.12 cm. The development time ranged about 30 days during
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© 2019 JETIR May 2019, Volume 6, Issue 5 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) the study period. The nesting biology of C. smaragdula was decribed briefly by Shiokawa and Sakagami (Shiokawa & Sakagami, 1969). About 31 nests of C. smaragdula built in Saccharum spontaneum, were recorded from Punjab (Batra, 1976). C. smaragdula is polylectic type and is considered to be an important crop pollinator in India, with the impending use in agro- ecosystems (Kapil & Kumar 1969; Daly et al. 1971; Batra 1976a). Indeed, the role of wild bees in crop pollination within tropical regions incorporates about two-third of the flowering species. Non-Apis bees have always played an important and major role in cross-pollination (Parker, Batra & Tepedino, 1987). It is important to protect their habitats (Cane, 2001) and populations (Roubik, 2001) in order to encourage maximum cross- pollination. Conservation and protection of the broods, their transfer to other territories and gradually releasing them in other crop fields would eventually help in the even distribution of populations and more effective crop pollination would take place (Rajpurohit & Gupta, 2006). This study will eventually help in the man-made domestication and management programmes of C. smaragdula and other such important non-Apis bees as virtuous crop pollinators.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Author wish to thanks Mr. Tejender Leelawat, Ms. Anjana Bania, Mr. Arjun Singh, Mr. Harshwardhan Singh, Mr. Imran, Mr. Habib and Mrs. Damayanti Patel for providing assistance during field observations. Author is grateful to the Head, Department of Zoology, JNV University, Jodhpur, for providing necessary facilities.
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