author(s)
C Mounika, Dr. PA Saravanan, Dr. MR Srinivasan and Dr. L Rajendran

abstract
Suitable colony propagation techniques are lacking for Tetragonula iridipennis which is the most common species of stingless bees found in Tamil Nadu. Stingless bees generally produce queen cells at regular intervals. In this study, attempts were made to divide the colonies having queen cells. Eight colonies of T. iridipennis were divided, out of which five colonies were successfully established after the gyne emergence and egg laying of new queen. These five newly divided colonies took 40, 107, 20, 54 and 43 days for their establishment from the date of division. The failure of three divisions was due to the attack of enemies like ants, resin bees and pollen mite. The findings of this study suggested that the stingless bee colonies can be propagated easily by way of colony division with royal queen cells.