Abstract
Melipona colimana Ayala is an endemic species inhabiting temperate forests of pine and oak of south of Jalisco in Mexico. During a year, it was recorded every 15 days foraging activity, environmental parameters and the development of colonies of M. colimana in its wild habitat. For five minutes every hour from 7:00 to 21:00, the bees that entered and left the hive and bringing pollen and resin were registered. Every hour the relative humidity, temperature, wind speed and light intensity was recorded and related to foraging activity. Additionally, the weight of the colonies recently transferred to wooden boxes, the number of brood combs, honey pots and pollen were registered. The time of beginning and ending of the foraging activity differs from the reports of stingless bees of tropical weather and the same happens with the pollen collection. The environmental parameters that affect other tropical stingless bees in the foraging activity also affect M. colimana in temperate climate. It was determined that the major activity season and the presence of more pollen pots in the colony is from November through February, for what it could be the best time of the year for the division and obtainance of new colonies, while the critical period of minor activity and pollen flow was during rainy season. These data may be useful for the future sustainable use of this species in temperate climate.
Highlights
Some stingless bees species are endemic of certain regions thereafter they have had to coevolve with their natural habitat adapting to the weather conditions that have influence with their foraging behavior and the development of their nests (Roubik, 1989)
The foraging behavior in stingless bees of Melipona genus has been studied by several researchers (Kerr, 1996; Kerr et al, 1996; Guibu et al, 1988; Hilario et al, 2000; Souza et al, 2006; Fidalgo and Kleinert, 2007), the majority of these works have been done with tropical climate species where the foraging activity starts early and the major activity of resources recollection is registered in the morning, before nectar collection: that conduct pattern has been reported for Melipona genus because of the fact that in tropical areas the resource availability is higher at first hours of the day (Roubik, 1989)
Pollen recollection of stingless bees in tropical climate has been mainly reported by early mornings; made works with M. beecheii y M. fasciata in tropical areas (Roubik and Buchmann 1984; Bruijn and Sommeijer, 1997) report pollen collect too early in the morning, different situation to behavior of M. colimana in the recollection of these resource in temperate climate; an explanation to this fact could be that the release of pollen of the temperate climate plant species can occur later when the environment is warm and less humid (Cuevas et al, 2004)
Summary
Some stingless bees species are endemic of certain regions thereafter they have had to coevolve with their natural habitat adapting to the weather conditions that have influence with their foraging behavior and the development of their nests (Roubik, 1989). The aim of this study was to determine the foraging behavior of the workers in their natural habitat, the influence of climatic factors in this activity and register the development of nests recently transferred to wooden boxes to determine the best time of year to obtain new colonies and the critical period where artificial food has to be provide
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