Floral preferences and climate influence in nectar and pollen foraging by Melipona rufiventris Lepeletier (Hymenoptera: Meliponini) in Ubatuba, São Paulo state, Brazil

Abstract

-We describe the environment effects on the amount and quality of resources collected by Melipona rufi ventris Lepeletier in the Atlantic Forest at Ubatuba city, São Paulo state, Brazil (44 o 48 'W, 23 o 22'S). Bees carrying pollen and/or nectar were captured at nest entrances during 5 min every hour, from sunrise to sunset, once a month. Pollen loads were counted and saved for acetolysis. Nectar was collected, the volume was determined and the total dissolved solids were determined by refractometer. Air temperature, relative humidity and light intensity were also registered. The number of pollen loads reached its maximum value between 70% and 90% of relative humidity and 18 o C and 23 o C; for nectar loads this range was broader, 50-90% and 20-30ºC. The number of pollen loads increased as relative humidity rose (rs = 0.401; P < 0.01) and high temperatures had a strong negative infl uence on the number of pollen loads collected (rs = -0.228; P < 0.01). The number of nectar loads positively correlated with temperature (rs = 0.244; P < 0.01) and light intensity (rs = 0.414; P < 0.01). The percentage of total dissolved solids (TDS) on nectar loads positively correlated with temperature and light intensity (rs = 0.361; P < 0.01 and rs = 0.245; P < 0.01), negatively correlated with relative humidity (rs = -0.629; P < 0.01), and it increased along the day. Most nectar loads had TDS between 11% and 30%, with an average of 24.7%. The volume measures did not show any pattern. Important pollen sources were Sapindaceae, Anacardiaceae, Rubiaceae, Arecaceae, Solanaceae and Myrtaceae; nectar sources were Sapindaceae, Fabaceae, Rubiaceae, Arecaceae and Solanaceae.KEY WORDS: Apidae, Atlantic Forest, environment infl uence, food resource, fl oral origin Foraging behavior of bee species is related to resources abundance and to their local distribution, to species susceptibility to abiotic factors, their communication ability and to colony size (Sommeijer et al 1983, Ramalho et al 1985, 1989, Roubik 1989.Stingless bees are generalists using resources of varied fl oral origin, which is essential for survival of their perennial colonies (Ramalho et al 1989, White et al 2001. Their foragers, however, exhibit fl oral constancy, and individuals usually restrict their visits to a type of fl ower during a certain foraging fl ight (Ramalho et al 1994, White et al 2001. This behavior makes these bees important potential pollinators in natural habitats and in agro-ecosystems (Roubik 1989).Following this pattern, foragers of the genus Melipona usually carry pollen loads of a single fl oral origin and the species most visited by them belong to the plant families Myrtaceae, Melastomataceae and Solanaceae (Ramalho et al 1989, 1990, 1994, 2007, Wilms & Wiechers 1997. Myrtaceae is the most important plant family in tropical forests, both in number of individuals and in number of species (Mori et al 1983, Cesar & Monteiro 1995, Assis 1999. In the plain coast at State Park of the Serra do Mar, in Ubatuba, the most common plant f...

Extreme Effects of Season on the Foraging Activities and Colony Productivity of a Stingless Bee (Melipona asilvaiMoure, 1971) in Northeast Brazil

“…Pierrot and Schilindwein [31] recorded higher rates of nectar foraging in the afternoon periods for M. scutellaris, which could be related to the gradual increase of sugar concentration in insolated flowers [32]. A similar pattern was found in an experiment carried out with M. rufiventris in southeast Brazil [24].…”

“…The influence of weather on foraging activities has been studied in several eusocial bee species [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. These studies report that weather conditions, light intensity, humidity, food availability, competition, colony state, and physiological conditions of individuals are important factors that influence the foraging activities of Melipona species.…”

Diversity and blooming season of food sources plant of Apis cerana (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in polyculture plantation in West Sumatra, Indonesia

“…Some families of plants are very important as a source of pollen for honeybees. The availability of these plants as a source of pollen varies from time to time (Fidalgo and Kleinert 2010). Annual and perennial plants that exist in and around the farm location became a source of nectar and pollen containing important components as food for many insects (Ratnadass et al 2012).…”

“…The foraging activity of bees has so many relations to the natural plant communities and the climate. Some factors affecting the nectar concentration collected by bees are the distance of flowers to the nest, the availability and the morphology of flower (Fidalgo and Kleinert 2010).…”

“…The plantation has a relatively high diversity of plant species which can be used as a source of pollen and nectar for honey bees. Each type of honey bees use different number of species of food source plants in different locations, such as A. mellifera honeybee which uses 18 species in Zaria, Nigeria (Mbah and Amao 2010), and 26 species in Iseyin and Ilesa of Southeast Nigeria (Ayansola and Davies 2012), while A. dorsata uses 194 species in Garhwal Himalaya India (Tiwari et al 2010), and stingless bee Melipona rufiventris Lepeletier uses 57 species in Ubatuba, São Paulo State, Brazil (Fidalgo and Kleinert 2010), but up to now, there are no reliable data and information about the species and the flowering period of plants in polyculture plantation which are used as food source for A. cerana honeybees. This study aims to determine the species and flowering period of food source plants for A. cerana in polyculture planting area in West Sumatra, Indonesia.…”