Types of Stingless Bee swarms

by Abu Hassan Jalil and Nick Powell

A swarm is defined as a large dense group of flying insects.
7.4.1 Hovering swarm: Expand defence perimeter and
vigilant to intruders. This is characteristic of a hive with no real
intrusion as yet or presence of a hatchling gyne (virgin queen).
It can be from an overpopulated colony venting tidal gas
exchange or for detecting dummy intruders to real intruders.
These hovering swarms may develop into other swarm
characteristics as the dangers manifest itself or the intrusions
materialize.
7.4.2 Alert Swarm: Can be when a gyne is due to hatch sensed from colony pheromones and
hive activity. The alert swarm is related to the mating season as opposed to the Alarm swarm
that is generally in battling mode.
7.4.3 Alarm Swarm: Happens when the colony is under threat from external impending
intruders or danger. These can be sparse initially but grows bigger into attack mode as the
imminent danger becomes real.
Can be seen a tight ball swarm 1-4 meters square with bees’ pairs falling and flying back up to
join the swarm. This happens when bees grab a friendly bee and are mistaken. This is a key
difference between this type of swarm and the attacking swarm. Defensive or alarm swarms
can last 1-2weeks before they feel secure. This swarm is gentler and its pattern while being
vortex is generally not as fast-moving as the attacking swarm
7.4.4 Attack swarm: A follow-up from the Alarm Swarm where the bees come out in full force
to attack the current intrusion. This defensive strategy gains its strength in numbers and turns
into an offensive strategy. The attack becomes relentless when the brood or its nest produce
are ravaged, e.g. bears, badgers, squirrels or primates rummaging for the honey. Other bees or
insects robbing the propolis.
Swarm contains bees moving in an erratic figure of 8 flight vortex pattern with bees falling out
of the swarm in pairs. Bees carry sticky substance on legs and cling locked to enemy bees
locking on with their mandibles to each other. Each pair of bees die as a result.
7.4.5 Invading swarm: Take over manoeuvre by a more aggressive species over a weaker
colony. Generally, occurs when a new colony is brought into a farm or due to lack or
insufficient foraging sources. Sometimes even when the foraging sources are available but not
particularly favoured by the newly imported species, but the indigenous species may invade to
undermine the competition.
This starts usually a few days prior with the arrival of 10-20 scout bees which can be observed
hovering in front of the hive entrance. These scout bees test the strength of the colony before
the large-scale invading swarm appears in great numbers. The swarm can be noted landing on
the hive Turning the face of the hive black with bees. Invaders that land on the hive group
together and fan the distress pheromones into the air to guild the rest of the bees to the location
of the invasion. It is a numbers game and the invaders rarely make a gamble on taking a hive.
7.4.6 Mating swarm: Generally, occurs during dry mating season, from studies in Australia
(Halcroft 2012) swarm participants can come from as many as 7 different colonies. Different
species in different regions of varied climate or season may have different peculiarities.
Drones can be observed in numbers ranging from 20-1000. Hovering and landing on hive roofs
and branches nearby to the location of the hive that contains the virgin queen. These can be
observed right throughout the year and are more prevalent when ants are sending out their
nymph queens. Drone bees hold their antenna in a curved fashion which can be likened to
bunny ears. Workers will push drones away from colony entrance and are on high alert during
this time. Hive activity is heightened, and work is done in double time with bees moving very
fast in the days before the queen is mated.
7.4.7 Warming swarm: occurs after a spate of cold weather or a period of no sunlight
exposure. the swarm usually hover over pockets of sunlight that may be near the hive. These
swarms can be as large as 3 meters in width. This was found to occur in Australia after the
winter season.
7.4.8 Colonizing swarm: This happens when a colony has reached its capacity. Bees leave the
colony in great numbers and cluster on trees, the ground and vertical surfaces in the area they
wish to live. Once a location is decided by the swarm workers a pheromone is splattered on the
area and continually worked over until the bees in the area that are in flight form together.
All bees will face one direction once the location and the swarm can be seen clustering at the
point of entry. This is the only swarm that the bees will all face one direction in flight as
opposed to vortex or figure of 8 flight patterns. Once the location is decided some of the bees
will return to the mother hive to take some wax and propolis on their legs. This aids in the fast
setup of a new home.
7.4.9 Drifting Swarm: this occurs in a farm when boxes are placed too close and multiple
swarms occur, the returning bees may “drift” into the wrong hives in the chaos. This was
observed in T. laeviceps and T fuscobalteta colonies in the west end (Ujong Kulon) of Java
Meliponary.
7.4.10 Exploratory swarm: Occasionally seen covering large areas up to 10 meters in a span
with bees searching vertically and horizontally usually upon a wall or hedge. Bees landing on
and then to rest. Attracted to darker spots of colour variation. Often scent-marking these areas.
This can be the initial exploratory move prior to the colonizing swarm.
7.4.11 Intermingled swarm: This happens when two swarms of different species swarm at
close proximity at the same time.
This swarm differs from fighting or attacking swarm in that the bees are not in aggressive flight
pattern or locking together. The swarm has a soft flight pattern and shows much interest in
scent marking. The swarm carries workers and queens of both species and this can change from
day to day leaving one more predominant in numbers than the other. Queens can be seen as
larger and are a few days old before they join this swarm. Because of the multiple pheromones
present in this type of swarm they are unlike to move into a trap hive and can stay in one area
for weeks. Many clusters of bees containing 10-50 bees can be seen working resinous
substances along tree branches and vertical walls, posts etc. The size of this swarm can be up
to 6 meters in span.