Orchid Bee (Apidae: Euglossini) Communities in Atlantic Forest Remnants and Restored Areas in Paraná State, Brazil

Abstract

In this study, we compare orchid bee communities surveyed in four forest remnants of the Atlantic Forest and four reforested areas characterized by seasonal semi-deciduous forest vegetation in different successional stages (mature and secondary vegetation), located in southern Brazil. The sizes of forest remnants and reforested areas varied from 32.1 to 583.9 ha and from 11.3 to 33.3 ha, respectively. All reforested areas were located near one forest remnant. During samplings, totaling nine per study area, euglossine males were attracted to eight scent baits and captured with bait trap and entomological nets. Each forest remnant and its respective reforested area were sampled simultaneously by two collectors. We collected 435 males belonging to nine species of orchid bees distributed in four genera. The number of individuals and species did not differ significantly between different areas, except for a reforested area (size 33.3 ha), which was located far from its respective forest remnant. Our findings also revealed an apparent association between an orchid bee species (Euglossa annectans Dressler 1982) and the most preserved area surveyed in our study, suggesting that this bee is a potential indicator of good habitat quality in recuperating or preserved areas. Our results suggest that reforested habitats located near forest remnants have a higher probability of having reinstated their euglossine communities.

Continuous Micro-Environments Associated Orchid Bees Benefit from an Atlantic Forest Remnant, Paraná State, Brazil

“…Concerning the predominance of Eg. annectans in the primary forest, our findings corroborated with the studies of Knoll and Penatti (2012) and Ferronato et al (2017) suggesting that the species' distribution may be related to the more humid and preserved regions of the Atlantic Forest.…”

“…Some studies suggest negative effects on the Euglossini community in fragmented habitats Aguiar et al, 2014;Gonçalves et al, 2014;Giangarelli et al, 2015), however our results seem to indicate that fragmented habitats in process of regeneration can support the reintegration of the orchid bee community, as suggested by Ferronato et al (2017) for the restored forest areas. A possible evidence for this fact is the presence of Ef.…”

“…Interestingly, the micro-environments of the primary and secondary forest seem to influence the preference of the species for conserved or altered sites. Recently, Ferronato et al (2017) investigated the Euglossini community in native and reforested forests and they observed that some species of orchid bees seem to indicate a better quality of habitat, besides the possible reintegration of the bee community from the reforested forests being favored by native forest. Although studies comparing the richness and abundance of Euglossini among several forest fragments are not scarce Aguiar et al, 2014;Gonçalves et al, 2014;Giangarelli et al, 2015;Ferronato et al, 2017), very little is known about the distribution of these species in microenvironments, mainly comparing the micro-environments mosaic within the primary and secondary forest and if the distribution of the species affect the attractiveness of the essences in these different micro-environments.…”

“…In South America, the Atlantic Forest (AF) is known to wide host bee diversity. Approximately 50 species of Euglossini have been already recorded to this ecosystem Milet-Pinheiro & Schlindwein, 2005;Nemésio, 2009;Cordeiro et al, 2012;Gonçalves et al, 2014;Ferronato et al, 2017). Although orchid bee fauna is considered to be diverse in the AF, their communities seem to depend on the traits of local environment (Moreira et al, 2015).…”

“…To our knowledge, studies comparing pattern of orchid bee communities in stages of regeneration and environmental preservation in a continuous are scarce (Moreira et al, 2015;Boscolo et al, 2017;Ferronato et al, 2017). In order to provide insights in this topic, we compared the attraction potential of orchid bees to chemical baits in multiple microenvironments distributed in continuous areas with primary and secondary forest.…”