Spatial–Temporal Variation in Orchid Bee Communities (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in Remnants of Arboreal Caatinga in the Chapada Diamantina Region, State of Bahia, Brazil

Diversity and Temporal Variation in the Orchid Bee Community (Hymenoptera: Apidae) of a Remnant of a Neotropical Seasonal Semi-deciduous Forest

“…In particular, the assembly of bee pollinator communities is strongly influenced by climatic factors as well as variation in food resource availability, which in turn also fluctuates in response to climatic variables (Ramirez et al, 2015). As reported by some authors (Rebêlo & Garófalo, 1991;Silveira et al, 2011;Andrade-Silva et al, 2012;Viotti et al, 2013;Rocha-Filho & Garófalo, 2013) and observed in the present study, species richness showed temporal variation throughout the year, with the highest values being observed during the rainiest months. The variation in species composition and species richness here reported occurred by the presence of males from six species which were sampled only during the rainiest months.…”

“…melanotricha and El. nigrita occurring during the rainy months, following the pattern most commonly reported to the orchid bees (e.g., Silveira et al, 2011;Andrade-Silva et al, 2012;Rocha-Filho & Garófalo, 2013) the immature undergoing a prepupal diapause during the coldest and driest months, and adults with activities for a relatively short period during the hottest and rainiest months (Roubik & Ackerman 1987;Rocha-Filho & Garófalo, 2013).…”

The Orchid Bee Communities in different phytophysiognomies in the Atlantic Forest: from lowland to montane rainforests

“…As in this study, Carvalho et al (2006) observed higher activity of orchid bees in lower air relative humidity in Atlantic Forest areas. However, other studies reported higher abundance of orchid bees in periods of higher air relative humidity in the Atlantic Forest (Aguiar & Gaglianone, 2012;Andrade-Silva et al, 2012) and savanna (Mendes et al, 2008). This suggests that air relative humidity alone does not explain orchid bees abundance.…”

Orchid Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Euglossini) in Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest (Caatinga) in Brazil

“…This taxon is distributed in the Neotropical region (Dressler, 1982;Moure et al, 2012), and higher species richness is found in tropical rainforests (Roubik & Hanson, 2004), but there are populations settled in arid areas, as in the seasonally dry tropical forest (Caatinga) (Lopes et al, 2007;Andrade-Silva et al, 2012). Studies focusing on Euglossini assemblages in the Caatingas' dominium are scarce and geographically restricted.…”