| Summary: | Honey quality is the main criterion used for evaluating honey production in the stingless bee <i>Heterotrigona itama</i>, and it is correlated with the plant species consumed as its main diet. The objective of this study was to obtain the metabarcode data from 12 populations of <i>H. itama</i> species throughout Malaysia (Borneo and Peninsular Malaysia) using the trnL marker. A total of 262 species under 70 families and five phyla of plants were foraged by <i>H. itama</i> in the studied populations. Spermatophyta and Magnoliophyta were recorded as the two most abundant phyla foraged, at 55.95% and 32.39%, respectively. Four species, <i>Garcinia oblongifolia, Muntingia calabura, Mallotus pellatus,</i> and <i>Pinus squamata</i>, occurred abundantly and were consumed by <i>H. itama</i> in all the populations. These data are considered as a fundamental finding that is specific to the diet of <i>H. itama</i> for strategizing the management of the domestication process specifically in a mono-cropping system and in a netted structure. Thus, based on these findings, we recommend <i>Momordica charantia, Melastoma </i>sp., and <i>Cucumis sativa</i> as the best choices of food plant species to be planted and utilized by <i>H. itama</i> in meliponiculture.
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