Urine versus pre-mix (Sugar: Salt): Baits for Stingless bees (Hymenoptera: Meliponini)

Stingless bees are dispersed throughout malaysia and form an important group of pollinators in agriculture and natural ecosystems. a study was conducted at lojing highland in kelantan,malaysia on the preference of stingless bees towards pre-mix bait [sugar and salt (1:2) (sugar: water:v:v)] with 2.5g nacl added per 500 ml of solution] and urine bait for two consecutive days. a total of 285 stingless bees of 15 species were sampled for this purpose. overall,stingless bees showed no preference for either bait,but a closer examination showed species-level preferences. five species preferred urine bait over pre-mix bait,and another eight preferred pre-mix bait over urine bait. no significant differences were found on stingless bees preferences towards pre-mix bait and urine baits (p>0.05). five stingless bee species (lisotrigona scintillans,pariotrigona pendleburyi,lepidotrigona ventralis,tetrigona apicalis,and tetragonula collina) were found to be frequently attracted to the urine bait compared with pre-mix bait. meanwhile,eight stingless bee species attracted to pre-mix bait compared with urine bait. this study shows that stingless bees' preference for pre-mix or urine baits depends on species. © universiti putra malaysia press.