Composição e sazonalidade de espécies de Euglossina (Hymenoptera: Apidae) em mata e duna na Área de Proteção Ambiental da Barra do Rio Mamanguape, Rio Tinto, PB

Abstract

-By using artifi cial fragrances as baits, we studied richness, composition, abundance and seasonality of Euglossina species in two areas (forest and dune) in the Environmental Protection Area of the Mamanguape River Bar, State of Paraiba, Brazil, between August 2002 and July 2004. Bees were attracted with wads of absorbent paper containing each of the fragrances: benzyl acetate, ionone beta, skatole, eucalyptol, eugenol and vanillin, and captured with insect net. We collected a total of 3,132 males of nine species of Euglossina. On both areas, Euglossa cordata (L.) and Eulaema nigrita Lepeletier were present throughout the year and were the most abundant species in the forest and the fi rst one was the most abundant specie at the dune. Concerning to the composition, the Atlantic Rainforest areas in Paraíba State were more similar among themselves, the same occurring to the dune areas in Paraíba and Bahia States. In the forest, Euglossina species showed higher seasonality, being more abundant during the drier period, specially E. cordata. At the dune, species were homogeneously distributed in the dry and rainy periods.

Is the “Centro de Endemismo Pernambuco” a biodiversity hotspot for orchid bees?

“…Whatever the reasons, the fact is that El. felipei was never recorded outside ESEC Murici in any previous field study in the "Centro de Endemismo Pernambuco" (Bezerra and Martins, 2001;Martins and Souza, 2005;Milet-Pinheiro and Schlindwein, 2005;Darrault et al, 2006;Farias et al, 2007Farias et al, , 2008Moura and Schlindwein, 2009; this study). If it is true, we hypothesise that a high level of endogamy may be present in this species, one additional factor, besides (and most probably a consequence of) its restricted geographic distribution, to threaten this species.…”

“…Roubik, 2004b;Oliveira, 2006;Rasmussen and Skov, 2006;Nemésio, 2006Nemésio, , 2007Nemésio, , 2008Nemésio, , 2009Nemésio, , 2010aNemésio, , 2011bNemésio, , c, d, 2012aAyala and Engel, 2008;Bembé, 2008;Hinojosa-Díaz and Engel, 2011a, b;Hinojosa-Díaz et al, 2011Nemésio and Engel, 2012), faunistic and ecological studies in the last decade have been mainly focused on the Atlantic Forest of eastern Brazil (e.g. Bezerra and Martins, 2001;Tonhasca Júnior et al, 2002;Santos and Sofia, 2002;Martins and Souza, 2005;MiletPinheiro and Schlindwein 2005;Darrault et al, 2006;Nemésio and Silveira, 2006b, 2007a, 2010Farias et al, 2007;Farias et al 2008;Aguiar andGaglianone, 2008, 2011;Moura and Schlindwein, 2009;Nemésio, 2010bNemésio, , 2011aNemésio, , b, e, 2012cMattozo et al, 2011;Cordeiro et al, 2013;Nemésio and Vasconcelos, 2013), although a few studies have also been conducted in the Amazon Morato, 2004, 2006;StorckTonon et al, 2009;Rasmussen, 2009;Abrahamczyk et al, 2011;Nemésio et al, 2014).…”

“…Areas in northeastern Brazil, particularly at the northern margin of the São Francisco river, are a good example. Only a few areas have been effectively sampled in Paraíba (Bezerra and Martins, 2001;Farias et al, 2007;Farias et al, 2008), Pernambuco (Milet-Pinheiro and Schlindwein, 2005;Darrault et al, 2006), and Alagoas (Darrault et al, 2006;Moura and Schlindwein, 2009;Nemésio 2010b). Almost nothing is known from the states of Ceará, Sergipe and Rio Grande do Norte, although a new orchid bee has recently been described from Ceará (Nemésio and Ferrari, 2012).…”

Two common species dominate the species-rich Euglossine bee fauna of an Atlantic Rainforest remnant in Pernambuco, Brazil

“…A similar high species richness of the Gurjaú site (23 species) within the Atlantic Forest was recorded also at the Nature Reserves "Estação Ecológica de Murici" (ESEC Murici) in the state of Alagoas (Nemésio, 2010), and at the "Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural Frei Caneca" (RPPN Frei Caneca) in the state of Pernambuco (Darrault et al, 2006), all part of CEP. Most yearlong euglossine surveys in the Atlantic Rainforest, however, revealed much lower species richness than the Gurjaú site (9-20 species) (Peruquetti et al, 1999;Bezerra and Martins, 2001;Tonhasca et al, 2002;Farias et al, 2008;Rosa et al, 2008;Ramalho et al, 2009;Aguiar and Gaglianone, 2012; Rocha-Filho and Garofalo, 2013 -two years of sampling). The species richness of the orchid bee fauna of the northern portion of the Atlantic Rainforest almost reaches that of the Amazon and Central American Rainforest (Nemésio and Silveira, 2007b).…”

“…The euglossine fauna of the Gurjaú site is characterized by extraordinary high species richness when compared to other Atlantic Forest remnants in NE-Brazil (Rebêlo and Silva, 1999;Bezerra and Martins, 2001;Neves and Viana, 2003;Farias et al, 2008;Ramalho et al, 2013). The species accumulation curve indicates that the orchid bee community at Gurjaú is well represented, but also that after exhaustive sampling effort rare species may yet appear.…”