Bees and Other Insects Recorded on Flowering Trees in a SubtropicalAraucariaForest in Southern Brazil

Abstract

Flower visiting insects were monitored on angiosperm trees in an Araucariaforest in Rio Grande do Sui, Brazil. The most abundant flower visitors were workers of the introduced honey bee, A pis mellifera,followed by stingless bees which were represented by 8 species. Together with other bees, they provide the main guild of foragers on flowering tree.~. The stingless bee fauna of the study area is similar to that of other regions of the Mat a Atlfintica, especially of former Araucariaforests, but also of montane coastal rain forests.

Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry fingerprinting of propolis of native Brazilian stingless bees

“…This finding is consistent with reports in which numerous stingless bees were found visiting S. terebenthifolius flowers (Ramalho et al, 1990;Wilms et al, 1997). These results indicate that S. terebenthifolius is an important plant source for propolis of native Brazilian stingless bees.…”

“…The leaves and fruit of S. terebenthifolius are popularly used for medicinal purposes and contain substances with known medicinal properties (Jain et al, 1995;Schmourlo et al, 2005). References have been found to several species of native bees visiting this plant in the state of São Paulo (Ramalho et al, 1990) and in the south of Brazil (Wilms et al, 1997). Due to the wide geographic distribution of S. terebenhtifolius, it is hardly surprising that propolis samples from different regions (south, southeast and northeast of Brazil) use this plant source.…”

Floral preferences of a neotropical stingless bee, Melipona quadrifasciata Lepeletier (Apidae: Meliponina) in an urban forest fragment

“…Although we did not estimate the population size of Melipona quadrifasciata in 20 months of study, many collections were made, indicating high abundance of individuals (n = 86). In contrast, two other studies in which M. quadrifasciata was collected showed very low abundance for this species, which supports Wilms et al (1997) who affirmed that this bee species is rare compared to others of stingless bees. These researchers collected 666 individuals belonging to highly social bee species, less than 1% of which were individuals of M. quadrifasciata.…”

“…Melipona quadrifasciata collected pollen in 19 plant species at NHM and can be considered a (Viana et al, 1997); 2-São Paulo forest fragment (Wilms et al, 1997); 3-Belo Horizonte forest fragment (the present study); 4-Belo Horizonte forest fragment (Antonini et al, unpublished); 5-São Paulo forest (Ramalho et al, 1989); 6-São Paulo forest fragment (Imperatriz-Fonseca et al, 1989); and 7-São Paulo forest fragment (Wilms et al, 1996).…”

Caracterização populacional de Mourella caerulea (Friese, 1900) e Plebeia nigriceps (Friese, 1901) (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponini) através de morfometria geométrica da asa, análise de hidrocarbonetos cuticulares e DNA mitocondrial

“…No entanto esses valores são subestimados, pois há registro de mais espécies de meliponíneos ocorrentes no bioma, tais como Plebeia nigriceps (Witter et al, 2007) e Tetragonisca angustula. Harter-Marques, 1999;Wilms et al,1997;Wittmann & Hoffman,1990 …”