Recursos polínicos utilizados por 23 espécies de meliponini lepeletier, 1836 para coleta de pólen ao longo da bacia do Rio Negro, Amazonas-brasil

Abstract

Pollen resources stored by 23 species of stingless bees whose nests were placed along 680 km of the channel of the Rio Negro, Amazonas, Brazil, in the end of the wet season (July and August/1.999), were submitted to study. Pollen types were identified, overlap index of trophic niches calculated, grouping of the species based on the pollen identity was analysed and the interaction network of Meliponini-plants was characterised. The work was divided into two chapters, in the first, the pollen grains from 11 species of Meliponini whose nests presented either one or two occurrences; and in the second chapter, the species of - Partamona, Scaura and Trigona - for which more colonies were sampled. In regard to the species studied in the first chapter, from a total of 51 samples analysed, 78 pollen types were identified, being 39 of them identified up to the species level, distributed into 70 genera and 42 families. Plebeia sp. gr minima presented the largest pollen spectrum, while Aparatrigona impunctata presented the smaller. The study has shown that the plants used by bees are not pollinated by Meliponini. Therefore suggesting scarcity of pollen resources from the plants adapted to the pollination carried out by Meliponini and emphasizing the adaptation of such bees upon the available resources. The location of the nests seems to be an influent factor in the composition of the pollen spectrum for each bee species. In the second chapter, was analysed 103 samples and similarly, 78 types of pollen were identified, being 47 up to a specific level, belonging to 36 botanical families. From the total of plants registered, 39.7% of them had the flowering period compatible to the sampling period of the colonies of Meliponini. On average, the pollen pots presented among 1 and 5 pollen types. The bee species that have presented the largest spectrum of pollen were Trigona williana and Trigona cilipes (15 types each) and that with the smaller spectrum was Scaura sp. gr. tenuis (only 2 types). The most frequent pollen types were Myrtaceae and Byrsonima. Finally, this work suggests a list of important plants for meliponiculure suitable for crops close to meliponaries.