Pollen and nectar harvesting by the stingless beeMelipona quadrifasciata anthidioides(Apidae: Meliponini) in an urban forest fragment in Southeastern Brazil

Abstract

Pollen and nectar sources used by Melipona quadrifasciata anthidioides were recorded at Parque Estadual da Serra do RolaMoça during one year. Eighty-nine workers of M. quadrifasciata visited flowers of 16 out of 83 flowering plant species recorded at the site. The flowers visited belonged mainly to a few families, mostly Solanaceae and Myrtaceae. Abundance of bees was not correlated to food availability. From most plant species the workers of M. quadrifasciata gathered either pollen or nectar. Fifty-five percent of visited plant families overlapped among Parque Estadual da Serra do Rola-Moça and four other sites in Bahia, São Paulo and Paraná States. ResumoInventariou-se as espécies de plantas que Melipona quadrifasciata anthidioides utiliza para coleta de pó len e néctar. Oitenta e nove operárias de M. quadrifasciata visitaram 16 (19.3%) das 83 espécies de plantas floridas. Setenta por cento das plantas visitadas foram principalmente espécies de Solanaceae e Myrtaceae. A abundância de abelhas nas flores não se correlacionou com a disponibilidade de recursos. Melipona quadrifasciata coletou somente pó len ou néctar da maioria das plantas que visitou. Houve uma similaridade média de 55% entre o conjunto de espécies de plantas visitadas por M. quadrifasciata no Parque Estadual da Serra do Rola-Moça e aqueles visitados em locais nos Estados da Bahia, São Paulo e Paraná.

Pollen resources and trophic niche breadth of Apis mellifera and Melipona obscurior (Hymenoptera, Apidae) in a subtropical climate in the Atlantic rain forest of southern Brazil

“…Perennial colonies of this family have high rates of offspring production and require food resources throughout the year (Cortopassi-Laurino and Ramalho 1988;Imperatriz-Fonseca et al 1994). Additionally, these bees have extreme taxonomic versatility in collecting pollen from phylogenetically distant taxa (Antonini et al 2006;Cane and Sipes 2006).…”

Pollen and nectar foraging by Melipona quadrifasciata anthidioides Lepeletier (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini) in natural habitat

“…But, there is no doubt that Myrtaceae (Eucalyptus) pollen play an important role in the diet of M. quadrifasciata anthidioides. This was also verified in other areas (Ramalho et al, 1989;Wilms & Wiechers, 1997;Antonini et al, 2006b). Similarly, more than 75% of Myrtaceae pollen grains was found in the honey and in the larval food from five species of Melipona in the Amazon forest (Cortopassi-Laurino et al, 2007).…”

“…In nature the nest is constructed inside trees hollows, but it is easily kept and maintained into artificial hives. Concerning the plants visited by M. quadrifasciata this species is considered generalist, but several species of Myrtaceae, Asteraceae, Melastomataceae and Solanaceae are among the preferred floral resources (Ramalho et al, 1989;Wilms & Wiechers, 1997;Antonini et al, 2006a;Antonini et al, 2006b).…”

TROPHIC RESOURCES COLLECTED BY Melipona grandis GUÉRIN, 1844 (APIDAE: MELIPONINA) IN RURAL AREA OF RIO BRANCO, ACRE – BRAZIL

“…Melipona bees tend to have selectivity regarding the visitation of plants to collect food resources, concentrating on a few botanical species such as a way to maximize foraging efficiency (Absy et al 1984, Antonini et al 2006, Kleinert et al 2009, Fidalgo & Kleinert 2010, Ferreira & Absy 2015, Chidi & Odo 2017 On the other hand a greater variety of plant visitation may be related to factors outside the colony, the main one being rainfall (Correia et al 2018). This statement corroborates the observations made in present work, given that the months with the greatest variety of pollen types coincided with the decrease of the rainfall in the Amazon, which generally varies from May to September (Fisch et al 1998).…”