Abstract
Due to the current practice of intensive pesticide use in Brazil on crops with flowers that are attractive to bees, biological information about Brazilian native bees is required in order for public authorities that are responsible for environmental safety to use them for calculations of risk assessments. Thus, the present study aimed to obtain biological data on stingless bees: Melipona scutellaris, Scaptotrigiona postica and Tetragonisca angustula. The food consumed by larvae and by adults and the mass of forager workers were obtained. The results provide essential inputs for the risk assessment of stingless bee exposure to pesticides., combined with information about the concentrations of these substances in crops with flowers that are attractive to bees, may be used in risk calculations.
Highlights
Brazil has the greatest global richness of stingless bees (Michener, 2013) and is the world’s largest consumer of pesticides (MAPA, 2017)
According to IBAMA (2017), among the main limitations for pesticide risk assessments for native bees is the lack of basic data on the biology of these bees, such as food consumption at different life stages and the mass of the individuals
In addition to composing the native Brazilian fauna, there is a need for biological data on stingless bee species, which may be useful for carrying out risk assessments for native species (IBAMA, 2017)
Summary
Brazil has the greatest global richness of stingless bees (Michener, 2013) and is the world’s largest consumer of pesticides (MAPA, 2017). According to IBAMA (2017), among the main limitations for pesticide risk assessments for native bees is the lack of basic data on the biology of these bees, such as food consumption at different life stages and the mass of the individuals.
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