Ecology and Natural History of Tropical Bees

Abstract

Humans have been fascinated by bees for centuries. Bees display a wide spectrum of behaviours and ecological roles that have provided biologists with a vast amount of material for study. Among the types observed are both social and solitary bees, those that either pollinate or destroy flowers, and those that display traits allowing them to survive underwater. Others fly mainly at night, and some build their nests either in the ground or in the tallest rain forest trees. This highly acclaimed book summarises and interprets research from around the world on tropical bee diversity and draws together major themes in ecology, natural history and evolution. The numerous photographs and line illustrations, and the large reference section, qualify this book as a field guide and reference for workers in tropical and temperate research. The fascinating ecology and natural history of these bees will also provide absorbing reading for other ecologists and naturalists. This book was first published in 1989.

Nesting biology of Centris (Hemisiella) tarsata Smith (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Centridini)

“…The covering of the nest plug with oil, as observed in C. tarsata, has also been reported by COVILLE et al (1983), ROUBIK (1989), JESUS & GARÓFALO (2000), GAZOLA & GARÓFALO (2003) for C. analis, FRANKIE et al (1988 for C. bicornuta, VINSON et al (1996) for Centris nitida Smith, 1804, andFRANKIE et al (1988), VINSON et al (1996), PEREIRA et al (1999) for C. vittata. PEREIRA et al (1999 suggested that the oily covering of the nest plug serves to provide greater protection to the nest, since the plug becomes harder after being covered and may reduce the possibility of nest invasion by natural enemies.…”

Nest structure and communal nesting in Euglossa (Glossura) annectans Dressler (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Euglossini)

“…(1969) stated that each nest of Euglossini is founded by a lone female and the presence of more than one female in nests ofsome species of Euglossa and Eulaema is the result of nest re-use by succeeding generations. This statement has been confirmed by more recent data for several species (GAROFALO 1985(GAROFALO , 1992YOUNG 1985;EBERHARD 1988;ROUBIK 1989;PERElRA-MARTfNS 1991;PEREIRA-MARTINS & KERR 1991;GAROFALO et at. 1993;SANTOS & GAROFALO 1994;RAMiREZ-ARRI-AGA et at.…”

Stingless bees (Meliponini): senses and behavior

“…Whereas the modern Apini constitute a small and morphologically, physiologically, and behaviorally uniform group (Michener 2007), the Meliponini evolved into a highly diverse tribe. This applies to their body size (ranging from species smaller than fruit flies to species larger than honey bees), colony size (number of individuals ranging from a few dozens to several thousands), nesting biology (subterranean nests; non-arboreal or arboreal cavities; association with termites, ants or wasps; exposed nests), brood cell-arrangement (horizontal or, rarely, vertical combs; irregular clusters), queen production (few queens in special brood cells; multiple queens in unspecialized cells), foraging strategy (solitary foraging; foraging in small or large groups; aggressive or unaggressive group foraging) and underlying recruitment mechanism (vibratory activation of nestmates; goaldirected guidance of nestmates through pheromones), and other still little explored traits (Michener 1974;Sakagami 1982;Johnson 1983;Wille 1983;Engels and ImperatrizFonseca 1990;Roubik 2006;Barth et al 2008). This rich diversity may be the result of accelerated speciation rates in the tropics owing to higher mutation rates, and/or faster physiological processes at higher ambient temperatures (Currie et al 2004).…”

“…Moreover, the co-occurrence of several dozen of social bee species and their competition over common resources (food, nesting space, etc.) is believed to have resulted in the segregation of ecological niches and the obvious diversification of adaptive strategies (Roubik 1989;Biesmeijer and Slaa 2006).…”