Journal of Melitology
Bee Biology, Ecology, Evolution, & Systematics The latest buzz in bee biology
No. 7, pp. 1–5 6 March 2013
Copyright © V.S. Rathor, C. Rasmussen, & M.S. Saini.
Creative Commons Atribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
ISSN 2325-4467
New record of the stingless bee Tetragonula gressiti from
India (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini)
Vikram S. Rathor
1
, Claus Rasmussen
2
, & Malkiat S. Saini
1
Abstract. Tetragonula gressiti (Sakagami, 1978), currently known from southern Vietnam, is here
reported for the frst time from dense forests in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, India. This new
record is about 2000 km northwest of the type locality of T. gressiti in Vietnam and increases to
seven the number of stingless bees known in India. Taxonomic comments on T. gressiti are also
provided.
1
Department of Zoology & Environmental Sciences, Punjabi University, Patiala-147002, India
(vikramrathor1412@gmail.com).
2
Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 114, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Den-
mark (alrunen@yahoo.com).
INTRODUCTION
Six named species of stingless bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini), belong-
ing to three genera, have been reported from India (Sakagami, 1978; Rasmussen, 2008;
Rasmussen & Cameron, 2007, 2010): Lepidotrigona arcifera (Cockerell), Lisotrigona cacciae
(Nurse), L. mohandasi Jobiraj & Narendran, Tetragonula af. laeviceps (Smith), T. benga-
lensis (Cameron), and T. rufcornis (Smith). Tetragonula Moure is the single largest and
most widespread genus of stingless bees in the Indo-Malayan/Australasian region. It
has been reported from India to the Solomon and Caroline Islands and contains about
32 species (Rasmussen, 2008). Sakagami (1978) revised the genus from continental
Asia and described and recorded T. gressiti (Sakagami) from Vietnam, which we here
report for the frst time from India, thus raising the number of stingless bees known
from India to seven species.
Specimens examined in this study were collected during the day time while
sweeping fowers in dense forests of Hunli and Pashighat of Arunachal Pradesh, India.
The workers were collected at 550 and 1325 m a.s.l. Terminology and measurements
follow Camargo & Pedro (2009) and Sakagami (1978). Measurements were taken with
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