Journal of Insect Biodiversity 5(10): 1-9, 2017 http://www.insectbiodiversity.org 1 RESEARCH ARTICLE Nesting sites characteristics of stingless bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia Nelky Suriawanto 1 Tri Atmowidi 1* Sih Kahono 2 1 Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Bogor Agricultural University, Dramaga Campus, Bogor 16680, Indonesia. 2 Zoology Division, Research Center for Biology-LIPI, Bogor 16911, Indonesia. *Corresponding author e-mail: atmowidi@gmail.com Abstract: Stingless bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) is eusocial insects that live together in a colony. This research was aimed to study the nesting site characteristics of stingless bees in the settlement areas at Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. The nesting sites were observed by purposive sampling method from July 2015 to January 2016. Four species belong to genus Tetragonula were found, namely T. fuscobalteata, T. biroi, T. sapiens, and T. laeviceps. Two spesies, T. biroi and T. sapiens are the new record in Sulawesi island. The highest abundance of stingless bees colony was T. fuscobalteata (92.26%), followed by T. biroi (4.17%), T. sapiens (2.98%), and T. laeviceps (0.59%). Nesting sites of T. fuscobalteata were found in the stone, brick wall, wooden wall, bamboo, and iron cavities, T. biroi in the wooden wall, stone, and brick wall cavities, T. sapiens in stone cavities, while T. laeviceps in wooden walls. Key words: Nesting sites, Stingless bees, Tetragonula, Settlement area, Central Sulawesi. Introduction The diversity of stingless bees vary among different ecosystems. The most diverse commonly is found in the natural forest and gradually reduce in secondary forest, utilized forest, and settlement area, respectively (Boontop et al. 2008; Salim et al. 2012; Kelly et al. 2014; Syafrizal et al. 2014; Rahman et al. 2015). Generally, lowland ecosystem has more diverse of stingless bees than highland ecosystem (Sakagami & Inoue 1989; Salim et al. 2012). In the settlement areas, nests of stingless bees usually are found in the part of buildings and houses, i.e., roof and wooden wall cavities.