Trap Nest

---

The American researcher Karl V. Krombein made popular the technique of the trap nest. He collected for 12 years (1953-1964) using this technique in a lot of places in the USA.
This technique is based on the strategy of many solitary bees and wasps which commonly prefer nesting in pre-existing cavities (holes made by bugs in wood, for example). Artificial cavities are thus offered to the wasps and bees, so that they can nest inside. The material, the form, the diameter and the placement of the trap nest in the field may vary.
One of the most commonly used trap nests is made with sections of bamboo that have one end opened and the other closed. Later, the sections are cut longitudinaly and the two halves are put together using adhesive tape.
The use of trap nests allows the collection of a great quantity of data related to many aspects of the biology of the species using the trap nest, such as sex ratio, kind of food used to provision the cells, the architecture of the nest and insects associated with the nests as parasitoids and cleptoparasites.

[home] [stingless bees] [Euglossini] [theses] [seek] [UFV]