CAIXA RACIONAL PARA CRIAÇÃO DE Trigona spinipes

Trigona spinipes is widely distributed in Brazil, where it is known as "irapuá", "arapuá" or "bee-dog", are typical species of Meliponineos, social insects that live in colonies perennial population, reaching 180,000 individuals, comprising of a coupled queen, other virgin queens, laborers, drones, larvae, and pupae. Six clusters of Arapuá bees were captured at the UNIVASF Agricultural Sciences Campus and housed in two types of rational boxes for adaptation tests. Three were housed in boxes INPA (National Institute of Amazonian Research) adapted for the meliponíneo species and three were housed in boxes UESDRA model developed in the laboratory of beekeeping and meliponicultura, aiming at improvements in the collection management, and observation of swarm development. Quarterly maneuvers were carried out, in which the development and adaptation of the Arapuá colonies were observed from the number of discs with new offspring present in the colonies. Data were submitted to the F test for analysis of variance at the 1% probability level. There was a significant difference between the models of rational boxes, being the UESDRA model the most accepted by the studied species, presenting a great development.