Hábitos de coleta de Tetragonisca angustula angustula Latreille. (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponinae)

Abstract

Durante um ano foram coletadas amostras de pólen e mel de colônias de Tetragonisca angustula angustula Latreille. Essas abelhas visitaram 180 espécies vegetais, pertencentes a 45 famílias diferentes, para coleta de alimento. Foram encontrados 140 tipos polínicos nas amostras de pólen e 158 nas amostras de mel. As espécies de plantas mais procuradas tanto para coleta de pólen como de néctar, variando somente a ordem de preferência, foram: Alchornea sidaefolia, Cecropia sp, Eucalyptus spp e Mimosa daleoides. A família botânica mais procurada para coleta de pólen foi Euphorbiaceae, seguida de Moraceae, Leguminosae e Myrtaceae. Para coleta de néctar, as mesmas famílias foram também as mais visitadas, variando no grau de preferência: Myrtaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Leguminosae e Moraceae.

Utilization of floral resources by bees of the Genus Frieseomelitta von Ihering (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

“…This foraging pattern is similar to that observed for other species of eusocial bees, such as: Plebeia Schwarz, that visited with high intensity only Anacardiaceae, Balsaminaceae, Solanaceae and Palmae (Knoll & ImperatrizFonseca 1993); Scaptotrigona Moure concentrated its foraging on Compositae, Leguminosae, Myrataceae and Euphorbiaceae (Ramalho 1990); Melipona Illiger visited with greater intensity plants of the Myrtaceae, Melastomataceae, Solanaceae and Mimosaceae families (Ramalho et al 1989); Tetragonisca angustula (Latreille) concentrated foraging on Euphorbiaceae, Moraceae, Leguminosae and Myrtaceae (Imperatriz-Fonseca et al 1984).…”

“…Imperatriz-Fonseca et al 1984, Ramalho et al 1989, Wilms et al 1996 suggest that, although Meliponina present generalist habits they concentrate their several patterns in the use of certain botanical families in among these bees.…”

Pollen types collected by Tetragonisca angustula (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in dry vegetation in Northeastern Brazil

“…The diversity of floral sources used by Tetragonisca angustula, together with the consistency exhibited by this species in the use of these resources, confirmed the generalist habit of this species. The small size of this insect may result in reduced energy expenditure (Imperatriz-Fonseca et al, 1984) per flower while foraging and probably per minute of flight, making various plants equally attractive for supplying food rewards. We may hypothesize that flowers offering a low quantity of resource (pollen or nectar) should be almost as attractive to small bees as those which offer high pollen/nectar rewards.…”

“…The geographical distribution of this group of stingless bees goes beyond the Brazilian territory, extending from Mexico to Argentina (Camargo & Pedro, 2012). Although the pollen collected by T. angustula has been studied in many different types of Brazilian vegetation (Iwama & Melhem, 1979;Imperatriz-Fonseca et al, 1984;Carvalho et al, 1999;Morgado et al, 2011;Novais & Absy, 2013), few studies have been done in caatinga. Novais et al (2006) performed a palynological study of the honey of this species collected in a hyperxerophytic caatinga region at the Canudos Biological Station in the northeastern micro-region of Bahia State.…”

Pollen Toxicity from Seed-Treated Cotton on Bees and Pollen Collection Capacity

“…Imperatriz-Fonseca et al (1984), Ramalho et al (1991), and Seeley (1995) suggested a high fidelity or "temporary specialization" between bees and the visited plants, with a strong tendency of not mixing pollen of different species.…”