Abstract
The floristic composition of an environment is important to ensure the trophic niche of bee species. Melipona scutellaris Latreille, is a typical stingless bee of Atlantic rainforest sites in northeastern Brazil, a region widely established in meliponaries for honey and pollen production. M. scutellaris is reared (meliponiculture) in rural and urban areas, where the species depends on the availability of different plants for nectar and pollen collection. In this study, we estimated food niche width, equitativity, and similarity between different colonies of M. scutellaris in highly urbanized and industrialized sites of the Metropolitan Region of Salvador, Bahia State, Brazil. We analyzed pollen spectrum of 58 honey samples from six meliponaries, during 12 months. We identified 111 pollen types distributed in 28 plant families. The Fabaceae family showed the highest diversity in pollen types (33.33% of the total) and Mimosa caesalpiniifolia was the most frequent pollen type, found in 100% of the samples. M. scutellaris concentrated its foraging activity on a few trophic resources (H’ = 2.69 and J’ = 0.01) indicating a few melittophilous plant species belonging to the genera Eucalyptus, Mimosa, Protium, Serjania and Tapirira, should be managed on a regional scale to favor meliponiculture with this native bee species.
Highlights
Meliponiculture is practiced throughout Latin America and honey is the main product marketed
We identified 111 pollen types distributed in 28 botanical families and 25 types did not have their pollen affinity determined (Tables 1 and 2)
In all meliponaries in the MRS, Fabaceae showed the highest number of pollen types in honey samples, representing 33.33% of the total, followed by Anacardiaceae (8.97%), Arecaceae (8.97%) and Euphorbiaceae (6.41%) (Table 1)
Summary
Meliponiculture is practiced throughout Latin America and honey is the main product marketed. The rearing of stingless bees offers valuable and profitable resources, especially for family agriculture, as meliponiculture is a sustainable activity of low-cost as well as beneficial to the environment, such as pollination and reproduction of many agricultural and native plant species (Wilms & Wiechers, 1997; Venturieri et al, 2012; Quezada-Euán et al, 2018). The rearing of stingless bees stands out in the northeastern Brazil, mainly of Melipona scutellaris Latreille (Silva & Paz, 2012). This species plays an important role in maintaining natural vegetation, as well as helping to generate income for family farming (Alves et al, 2012). Compared to honey from Africanized bees (Apis mellifera L.), Melipona species produce an economically valuable honey, often from mixed sources of native floral (Camargo et al, 2017), with distinct physical, chemical and biological features (Abadio Finco et al, 2010)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
