Abelhas africanizadas Apis mellifera scutellata Lepeletier, 1836 (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Apinae) exploram recursos na floresta amazônica?

Abstract

The African honeybees (Apis mellifera scutellata) were introduced accidentally to Brazil in 1956 where it subsequently interbred with other subspecies of European honeybee here introduced in the 19th century. This resulted in hybrids with predominantly African honeybee characteristics, such as higher capacity of swarming and survival in inhospitable conditions, allowing them to adapt quickly and expand throughout nearly of the Americas. Moreover, to date there is much controversy about the probable impact of these bees, called Africanized honey bees, on native bees. In the Americas, Africanized honeybees are limited to regions of low altitude and cool winters, and in Brazil they occur principally in urban areas, and open or disturbed vegetation, not occurring in the interior of dense forest such as the Amazon Forest. We offered various kinds of bait in the interior of continuous forest, and in forest fragments to verify if Africanized honeybees would be capable of penetrate in it. No Africanized honeybee workers visited any baits in continuous forest or in forest fragments, but they did so in deforested/open areas. This result indicates that there is no possibility of source competition between Africanized and native bees within Amazon forest, and also indicates that large-scale beekeeping is unlikely to succeed in this region, because forest is not explored by Africanized bees.