Abstract
The knowledge on plant species used for the collection of floral resources is crucial to understanding interactions between plants and bees. The aim of the present study was to identify floral resources used by Centris analis and Centris terminata to provision brood cells and determine the niche breadth and overlap of these two species in a fragment of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. This study was conducted at the Universidade Federal da Bahia and Parque Zoobotânico Getúlio Vargas, both of which are located in urban areas of the city of Salvador in the state of Bahia. Twelve and eight pollen types were identified in C. analis and C. terminata nests, respectively. The most frequent pollen types were from species of Malpighiaceae and Fabaceae. A larger trophic niche breadth was found in the Parque Zoobotânico Getúlio Vargas for C. analis and in the Universidade Federal da Bahia for C. terminata. Pianka’s index demonstrated trophic niche overlap between C. analis and C. terminata, which was greater in the Parque Zoobotânico Getúlio Vargas. This study is the first to provide data on plants used as food sources by species of the genus Centris in a fragment of the Atlantic Forest situated within urban areas.
Highlights
Bees of the genus Centris Fabricius, 1804 are widely distributed in the Americas (Michener, 2007)
We described the pollen types used by C. analis as larval food sources per month in both studied areas
The present study showed that the most frequent pollen types collected by females of C. analis and C. terminata in the urban fragment of the Atlantic Forest were M. emarginata, B. sericea, S. cavernulosum and A. paucifolia,which indicates the importance of these species as sources of food for immature bees
Summary
Bees of the genus Centris Fabricius, 1804 are widely distributed in the Americas (Michener, 2007). Centris analis (Fabricius, 1804) occurs from Mexico to Brazil and Centris terminata Smith, 1874 occurs from Ecuador to Brazil (Moure et al, 2012) These two species belong to the subgenus Heterocentris Cockerell, 1899. As occurs with other bees, Centris females visit flowers for the purpose of collecting pollen and nectar to supply their own energy needs and provision brood cells. These bees use the floral oil to feed larvae and/or build nests (Vogel, 1974; Neff & Simpson, 1981; Vieira-de-Jesus & Garófalo, 2000; Alves-dos-Santos et al, 2007). Species of the genus are efficient pollinators of native and cultivated plants with economic importance as, for example, C. analis being a effective pollinators of Malpighia emarginata Sessé and Moc ex DC (Vilhena & Augusto, 2007; Oliveira & Schlindwein, 2009), Byrsonima sericea D.C (Ramalho & Silva, 2002) and C. terminata being an known pollinator of Passiflora alata Curtis (Mello et al, 2014)
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