Almergib agricultural ministry | ||
| Journal of Plant Protection and Pathology | ||
| Article 8, Volume 1, Issue 12, December 2010, Pages 1023-1034 PDF (443.84 K) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/jppp.2010.86968 | ||
| Authors | ||
| H. M. Alfallah1; M. Alfituri2; M. Hmuda3 | ||
| 1Plant Protection Dept., Agric. College, Alfateh University Tripoli, Libya | ||
| 2African Arabic Center for Beekeepig Techniques | ||
| 3Almergib agricultural ministry | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Most beekeepers think that the bee-eaters birds are the main obstacle causing bee workers not to forage, and stay in side the hives for a long time of the day during the period extending from June to end of August. As result of some field observations bee-eaters behavior, this research have been carried out to understand foraging behavior of bee-eaters, and investigate the predation relation between honey bee and bee eater. The study have been carried out in Eucalyptus forest in Alalous region which is located 80 Km east of Tripoli-Libya. In the study , the rate of foraging during the day hours and for all the days of study during the period which are mentioned above have been measured, also the number of the birds have been counted and presences of its perches and nest.. The study showed that the bee-eaters were not the main obstacle of bee foraging, which are opposite of what beekeepers think. Foraging rate was higher in presence of the birds than in their absence in some cases.The average bird meal consist from 90.8 % and 9.2 % of honey bee and coleoptera respectively.The study also showed that there was correlation between the foraging rate and temperature during the study period, where the foraging rate decreased as temperature increased, at the same time the study showed that there was no any correlation between foraging rate and air humidity. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Bee eater; Merops apiaster; bee worker; predation; foraging | ||
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