Propolis and honey produced by stingless bees are regarded as high economic value products due to their bioactive components, which are significantly influenced by conditions at the cultivation location. This study investigated the effect of cultivation location on the amount and quality of propolis and honey produced by Tetragonula laeviceps cultivated in Modular Tetragonula Hives. Fifteen bee colonies were cultivated for at least three months in coffee plantations at two different locations, namely Cibodas and Cileunyi Wetan, Indonesia. The propolis was harvested from the hives and then evaluated to compare product quality from each location. The average production of propolis in both locations was found to lie in the range of 4.26–4.54 g/colony/month with a flavonoid content of 11.4–14.8 mg/g qE. Meanwhile, the average production of honey in both locations after eight months of cultivation was found to lie in the range of 0.93–1.44 g/colony/month. The vitamin C content of the honey obtained from both locations was 17.2–69.5 mg/100 g with an IC50 of 1188–1341 mg/L, in terms of its ability to inhibit the free radical 2,2-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl. This study shows that cultivation of stingless bees on a coffee plantation in the studied locations has the potential to provide sustainable production of propolis and honey from T. laeviceps.

In Indonesia, hot pepper (Capsicum annuum) is one of the most important spices. Despite the fact that high yield cultivars and fertilizers have been applied to increase the annual production of this spice, local farming is always unable to maintain constant production. Studies to find the explanation of this problem mostly focused on pest attack while possibility of low fruit production due to lack of pollination was neglected. In this study, the effect of pollinator visitation to fruit set and quality was assessed by application of two local domesticated honey bees, Asiatic honey bees (Apis cerana) and stingless bees (Trigona laeviceps) as potential pollinator agents at hot pepper plantation. This study found that both bees had similar visitation rate whileA. ceranaspend less time in flowers. Visitation byA. ceranaandTrigona laevicepsimproved fruit set, fruit production per plant, average fruit weight, and fruit size. This result confirms the importance of cross pollination for hot pepper production and both species could be used as pollination agent for hot pepper. Advantages and disadvantages for each species as pollination agent for local Indonesia farm system are discussed in this paper.

Efficiency of Local Indonesia Honey Bees (Apis cerana L.) and Stingless Bee (Trigona iridipennis) on Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) Pollination

Pola kunjungan serangga liar dan efek penambahan koloni Trigona (Tetragonula) laeviceps Smith pada penyerbukan kabocha (Cucurbita maxima)