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

Abstract

Melipona grandis has a wide geographic distribution in Latin America. Moreover, it is a species used in honey production by native meliponicultors of Acre. This study aimed to identify plants visited by M. grandis and indicate the degree of specialization of this bee in the collection of trophic resources, being conducted between November 2016 and October 2017. Altogether, 26 samplings were performed. The most common pollen types were: Solanum type (Solanaceae); Cassia mimosoides (Fabaceae/Caesalpinioideae); Mimosa caesalpiniifolia; Mimosa pudica (Fabaceae/Mimosoideae) and Miconia type (Melastomataceae). The months with greatest wealth of pollen types were: July, May and August. Arboreal and shrubby plants were the main resource suppliers for M. grandis, being 48.78 % (arboreal) and 34.15 % (shrubby). The degree of specialization of this bee is clearly associated with the abundance of resources throughout the year, Levins Index (B) for trophic niche amplitude 6.975, Standardized Index (B sta) 0.314, characterizing M. grandis as polyletic.

Pollen niche of Melipona crinita Moure & Kerr, 1950 (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in a meliponary of Acre, Brazil: a study case

“…This fact corroborates the observations of Tasei (1973), that an unattractive and abundant species is always less visited than a very attractive and scarce flower. As for the seasonality of plants used by M. crinita to collect resources, differences were observed between the results found in this study and the observed by Correia et al (2018) with the species M. eburnea and Correia et al (2020), with the Melipona grandis specie, both in the same area, in which the least seasonal pollen types were Solanum, M. caesalpiniifolia, Eugenia jambolana Lam. and Manihot esculenta Crantz; Solanum, Cassia mimosoides L., M. caesalpiniifolia, Miconia Ruiz & Pav.…”

“…Correia et al (2018) also verified that, similarly to what was observed in this study, of the plants visited by M. eburnea, 43.20% were trees and shrubs, established in the fragments of natural forest. Other surveys also point out that wild trees are the plant species most visited by stingless bees (Roubik et al 1986;Martínez-Hernández et al 1994;Ramalho 2004;Malagodi-Braga and Kleinert 2009;Obregon et al 2013;Correia et al 2020).…”