author(s)
Gaurava Kumar and MS Khan

abstract
Tetragonula iridipennis Smith, also known as dammer bee is happens to be the only species of stingless bees found in most of the North Indian states. In the present study, a quantitative assessment of the larval provision was done for realizing the total pollen and nectar content consumed by a T. iridipennis worker bee, during its development. The eggs were removed by decapping the T. iridipennis brood cells to suck the total larval provision from 60 brood cells. After collecting the larval provision in 6 Eppendorf tubes, each containing larval provision from 10 brood cells, the total dry pollen content was weighed after the complete dehydration. The average dry pollen content present in all the 60 brood cells was calculated to be 7 mg as compared to the 70 mg of total moisture content. Further, the estimation of total moisture content present in recently collected pollen by these bees, gave the fraction of pollen (10.51%) and nectar (89.48%) present inside a single brood cell of T. iridipennis bees.