Abstract
Pollen analysis in honey can be used as an alternative method to researchinto flowers visited by bees in an area. This study aimed to indentify the mainfloral families in honey from apiaries in the Atlantic Forest and Sergipe statecoast. Honey samples from these apiaries were studied, as well as plants thatgrow around them, which can be used as a source of foraging for bees. Thepalynological technique was used to compare the pollen content of honeysamples with the pollen grains from leaves of plants found in the vicinityof the apiaries to assess whether they had been visited by bees. The resultsof studies in both sites were similar in terms of incompatibility of familiesfound in the apiary vicinity and honey. Thus, it was possible to observe thatin honey samples from the coast and in the remaining Atlantic forest, thenumber of families was greater than the number of families found in theapiary vicinity, which highlights the diversity of plants visited by bees and apossible expansion of the visited area for food search. This diversity suggestsan adaptive foraging behavior to plant resources available in the environment,which may facilitate the pollination of these botanical families andconsequently improve their genetic quality.
Highlights
Bees visit plants searching for pollen, nectar and resins to maintain their colonies
This study aimed to identify the main floral families present in honey and apiaries located in biomes in the Atlantic Forest and on the coast of the state of Sergipe – Brazil
The Mimosaceae pollen grains are dominant, the honey is considered wild, once no species showed isolated dominance, i.e., presence greater than 45% of pollen grains (Figure 7). Both the coastal area and in the remaining Atlantic Forest showed that in the honey samples, the number of flower families was greater than the number of families found in the apiary vicinity, which highlights the diversity of plants visited by bees and their possible expansion of the visited area to search for food
Summary
Bees visit plants searching for pollen, nectar and resins to maintain their colonies. The pollen is the only protein source in the bees' diet, and it contains lipids, vitamins and minerals necessary for their development (Day 1990). The nectar, a substance secreted by glands called nectaries, is a sugary compound that attracts animals (Raven et al 1992), which may contain varying amounts of sugars, according to the species and other environmental factors (Crane 1999). The visited plants are an essential resource for the bees and knowing them constitutes a basic tool for the development of apiculture (Pearson & Braiden 1990). The composition of the bee flora of a region is the main factor for the installation and development of an apiary, as it influences the number of hives to be installed and the honey production of the apiary (Ashman et al 2004; Biesmeijer et al 2006; Williams 1994; Westerkamp & Gottsberger 2000)
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