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This study was carried out with cultivated Brazil nut trees (Bertholletia excelsaBonpl., Lecythidaceae) in the Central Amazon rainforest, Brazil, aiming to learn about its pollination requirements, to know the floral visitors of Brazil nut flowers, to investigate their foraging behavior and to determine the main floral visitors of this plant species in commercial plantations. Results showed thatB. excelsais predominantly allogamous, but capable of setting fruits by geitonogamy. Nineteen bee species, belonging to two families, visited and collected nectar and/or pollen throughout the day, although the number of bees decreases steeply after 1000 HR. Only 16, out of the 19 bee species observed, succeeded entering the flower and potentially acted as pollinators. However, due to the abundance, flower frequency and foraging behavior of floral visitors, it was concluded that only the speciesEulaema mocsaryiandXylocopa frontaliscould be considered relevant potential pollinators.

(Dnline) 2 Materials and methods 2.1 Samples of honey and bee pollen from meliponini species Different samples of honey (n = 31) and bee pollen (n = 25), respectively from seven stingless bees species: Melipona asilvai Moure (1971); M. quadrifasciata anthidioides Lepeletier (1836); M. scutellaris Latreille (1811); M. subnitida Ducke (1910); Frieseomelitta varia Lepeletier (1836); Tetragona clavipes Fabricius (1804) and Plebeia sp., and six of such species (all the above mentioned less F. varia) were collected in four private

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-Molecular markers are widely used in biology to address questions related to ecology, genetics and evolution. In bees, molecular studies addressing those issues have focused on Apis and Apis mellifera. Here we describe examples where molecular markers from mtDNA and microsatellite analyses were applied to stingless bees species. The data obtained, although in some cases preliminary, have already proven useful to infer hypotheses about phylogeny, population dynamics, species validity and the evolution of this group of bees. stingless bees / molecular marker / mitochondrial DNA / microsatellite / evolution / Apidae / Meliponini

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