Euglossine bees (Apidae) in Atlantic forest areas of São Paulo State, southeastern Brazil

Abstract

We investigated the diversity of euglossine bees in ten areas of Atlantic Forest Domain in São Paulo State, Brazil. Bees were collected with odor baits for 2 years, from March 2007 to March 2009. From a standardized effort during the first year of sampling, we compare the four areas using indexes of diversity, evenness, and similarity of euglossine communities. In the second year, we added six new places for presenting a general overview on the Atlantic forest in São Paulo. A total of 2,395 individuals of 23 species were recorded in the study areas. Ilhabela had the highest number of species (19) and individuals (1,260). The most attractive odor bait was eucalyptol, which attracted 16 species and 58 % of all individuals. Euglossa cordata (Linnaeus 1958) was the most abundant species, representing 50 % of the individuals sampled; apparently, populations of this species are more abundant at low altitudes, as for example on islands and on the coast. The results also suggest a difference in richness among altitudes, since coastal areas (where the climatic variation are milder) had more species. The present study advances knowledge on the occurrence of euglossine bees in the Atlantic Forest and fills the lack of a systematic study of these bees of coastal areas in São Paulo State.

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

“…carolina and El. nigrita, which were pointed out as abundant species also in other surveys within the Atlantic Forest (Ramalho et al, 2009;Aguiar and Gaglianone, 2012;Cordeiro et al, 2013;Ramalho et al, 2013). All species collected in the present study were already recorded in CEP in nearby areas (Darrault et al, 2006;Nemésio, 2010), except for Eufriesea surinamensis (Linnaeus, 1758), a common species in the Atlantic Forest south of the São Francisco river (Nemésio, 2009).…”

“…Recorded species richness corresponds to 79 and 83% of that indicated by Chao1 and Jacknife1 estimators, respectively. Cordeiro et al (2013) documented that 15 of 19 species (73%) recorded in an Atlantic Forest remnant in São Paulo state were sampled in the first of a two-year sampling period. In our study, in the first month of sampling, already 65% of the orchid bee species were recorded, documenting the efficiency of the method.…”

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

“…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).…”

Rapid assessment of the orchid bee fauna (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Euglossini) in the vicinity of an urban Atlantic Forest remnant in São Paulo, Brazil

“…The most abundant species in both years was Euglossa cordata with 384 males (corresponding to 78.5% and 83.2% in 2015 and 2016, respectively), followed by Eulaema nigrita with 86 males (19.3% and 14.7% in 2015 and 2016, respectively) ( Table 1). Euglossa cordata and Eulaema nigrita were also the two-dominant species in the Santa Genebra forest in 2008 (Cordeiro et al, 2013) and in other Atlantic Forest fragments Gaglianone, 2008, 2012;Ramalho et al, 2009;Rocha-Filho and Garófalo, 2013;Oliveira et al, 2015). Both species are distributed throughout the Atlantic Forest (Garraffoni et al, 2017), and can be found in disturbed and fragmented areas as well as in open preserved areas (e.g., Viana and Kleinert, 2006;Ramalho et al, 2009;Aguiar and Gaglianone, 2012).…”

“…The Atlantic Rain Forest originally occupied about 15% of the Brazilian territory, but it was completely fragmented in forest remnants, and now covers 11-16% of its original area (Ribeiro et al, 2009;Joly et al, 2014). Our knowledge about orchid bee diversity in urban forest fragments is very scarce (Nemésio and Silveira, 2007;Cordeiro et al, 2013), although diverse communities of wild bees have been surprisingly found in cities around the world (Nemésio and Silveira, 2007;Burr et al, 2016). Thus, our aim in this study was a rapid assessment of the orchid bee fauna in the vicinity of an Atlantic Forest remain.…”