Abstract
Bees are prolific pollinators and are responsible for the pollination of most wild and cultivated plants. This study aimed to learn about the flight activity of the stingless bee Plebeia aff. flavocincta in tropical conditions as a parameter to evaluate the general state of the colonies, and to investigate the role of food resources and environmental factors in their flight activities. We recorded the worker flight activity (exit, when they leave the hive; trash, when they discard litter; entry with pollen; and entry without pollen) of four colonies throughout the year and monitored biotic and abiotic conditions that could affect the bee´s external activities, such as blooming and meteorological conditions. Results showed that the colonies remained active throughout the year and presented two major periods of external activity; one corresponding to the greater food supply in the field, and the other to time of the year when there were few food resources available. Also, the four flight activities were all strongly correlated with each other. We concluded that in tropical conditions, external activities of P. aff. flavocincta are regulated mainly due to the food resources available rather than the prevailing weather conditions and they are an important indicator of the general health of the colony.
Highlights
Bees are prolific pollinators, being responsible for the pollination of most wild and cultivated plants (IPBES, 2016)
This study was conducted with the stingless bee Plebeia aff. flavocincta between September 2017 and August 2018 in the Bee Unit (Campus do Pici - Universidade Federal do Ceará), located in the city of Fortaleza, Ceará (03° 43’ 02”S e 38° 32’ 35”W and 16 m of altitude) (IPECE, 2017)
The range of daily flight activity lasted from 6 am to 6 pm, with this pattern being consistent throughout the year
Summary
Bees are prolific pollinators, being responsible for the pollination of most wild and cultivated plants (IPBES, 2016). Due to the large number of species with marked morphological and functional diversities and feeding habits, these bees have become excellent pollinators of wild native flora and have recently attracted interest in agricultural pollination (Kakutani et al, 1993; Kerr, 1996; Nogueira-Neto, 1997; Amano et al, 2000; Slaa et al, 2006; Bomfim et al, 2015). Studies within this group of bees have been concentrated on medium and large species of the genera Melipona, Scaptotrigona and Trigona. Smaller bees have not been included, such as those of the genus Plebeia (Cruz et al, 2004; Del-Sarto et al, 2005; Greco et al, 2011; Bomfim et al, 2015)
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