Pollen sources used by Frieseomelitta Ihering 1912 (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini) bees along the course of the Rio Negro, Amazonas, Brazil

Alyne Daniele Alves Pimentel,Maria Lucia Absy,Vanessa Holanda Righetti De Abreu,André Rodrigo Rech

doi:10.1590/0102-33062019abb0391

Abstract

ABSTRACT Insect pollination has influenced the evolution and diversification of angiosperms. Consequently, knowing plants used as food sources by bees, the most important pollinator group, is the first step toward understanding how their ecological relationships works. Pollen source information is also highly relevant for bee management and associated fruit and seed production. Accordingly, to improve understanding of the trophic ecology of these bees and their relationships with native Amazonian plants the current study identified, quantified and compared pollen stored in nests of Frieseomelitta stingless bees along the Rio Negro, Amazonas, Brazil. A total of 31 pollen pots were sampled and found to contain 65 pollen types distributed across 52 genera and 29 botanical families (predominantly Arecaceae, Araliaceae, Fabaceae and Urticaceae). Euterpe was the commonest pollen type, being present in 32.2 % of the analyzed samples. Although the studied bees were generalists, pollen analysis suggested that different Frieseomelittaspecies may have distinct food preferences. The pollen profile of the studied bees was influenced more by nest location than by species phylogenetic proximity. The current study also provides a list of important plants for native bee management, which could improve beekeeping when grown near managed meliponarine colonies.

Highlights

Insect pollination influenced the evolution and diversification of Angiosperms (Lima 2000; Soltis et al 2019), especially in the tropics where the dependence of plants on biotic pollinators appears to be higher than in more temperate environments (Maués et al 2012; Rech et al 2016)
Species considered attractive to the bees were: F. flavicornis (Cecropia type, Euterpe precatoria, Iriartella type, Schefflera type, Swartzia type); Frieseomelitta sp. (Croton cajucara, Cynometra type, Scleria type); F. portoi (Cecropia type, Pourouma type, Schizolobium amazonicum, Desmodium type, Iriartella setigera, Mabea type, Ryania speciosa); F. trichocerata (Araliaceae type, Euterpe type, Schefflera type, Bactris brongniartii, Bactris gasipaes, Cynometra marginata, Cynometra type)
The current study adds a new set of data to a series of investigations on Negro river region Meliponini species pollen sources (Rech & Absy 2011a; b)

Summary

Introduction

Insect pollination influenced the evolution and diversification of Angiosperms (Lima 2000; Soltis et al 2019), especially in the tropics where the dependence of plants on biotic pollinators appears to be higher than in more temperate environments (Maués et al 2012; Rech et al 2016). Understanding the network of interactions between bees and plants is essential, as knowledge of the diet of each bee species provides the first step towards understanding the multiple levels of plant-insect interdependence, and the dynamics of these relationships (Absy et al 2018). Such studies can generate data that informs guidelines for defining conservation strategies for both plants and pollinators, as well as assisting in the evaluation of pollination as an ecosystem service In the Neotropics stingless bees of the Tribe Meliponini (Family Apidae) are especially important in this regard (ImperatrizFonseca & Nunes-Silva 2010)

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Results

Conclusion