Eficiência de ninhos-isca na atração e na obtenção de enxames, por nidificação espontânea, de abelhas sem ferrão amazônicas

Abstract

Obtaining colonies and specimens of native bees in the wild, for any purpose, be it for scientific studies, conservation, formation or expansion of meliponaries, is permitted through the use of trap-nests. Due to this legal requirement to obtain colonies of stingless bees in the wild using trap-nests. And, also, given the immense difficulty in inventorying these nests natural in the Amazon region, due to the conventional entomological sampling methods and traps not being effective for attracting and capturing these insects. We proposed here to test the efficiency of trap-nests for attracting and obtaining swarms, by spontaneous nesting, of stingless amazon bees, in order to assess whether there is a preference for different attractants based on cerumen and geopropolis impregnated in trap-nests as well as volumes of trap-nests for attraction and spontaneous nesting. In addition to identifying which species of bees are attracted and which spontaneously nest in the trap-nests. Thus, three attractants (natural aromatic essences) made from alcoholic cerumen extract and geopropolis of Melipona seminigra (Attractant A1), from M. interrupta (A2) and a 1:1 mixture of extracts of both species (A3) were tested in addition a control without attractant (SA); and two volumes of containers (PET bottles with two and five liters). In parallel, a pilot test was carried out to test the attractiveness of natural aromatic essences by distributing 12 bait traps (with cotton soaked with the different attractants) at INPA Campus I for a period of 20 days. The three attractants were efficient mainly for stingless bees (Partamona vicina and Melipona seminigra) but also attracted males from Euglossini, with the A1 attraction being the most effective. The experiment with trap-nests was carried out in three areas, in Menino Deus and Valéria communities in Parintins-AM, which have a meliponary, and in the Ducke Reserve in Manaus-AM, without meliponary, in the period from December / 2018 to December / 2019. Were distributed 216 trap-nest, which attracted 58 visits from stingless bees, regardless of the absence or presence of any of the attractants, and 12 (5.6%) nests, of which nine (75%) preferred the 5L volume. The species attracted were M. interrupta Latreille, 1811, Cephalotrigona femorata (Smith, 1854), Tetragona clavipes (Fabricius, 1804), Trigona branneri Cockerell, 1912, Lestrimellita aff. spinosa Marchi and Melo, 2006, Ptilotrigona lurida (Smith, 1854) and those that nested were nine from M. interrupta, one from C. femorata, one from T. clavipes. The attractants with natural aromatic essences were efficient in attracting stingless bees. The absence of preference for attractiveness suggests that the availability of cavities is much more important than the odor for nesting. And the choice for the volume of five liters demonstrates the preference of bees for larger cavities, and dry seasons of the year are better for nesting. Therefore, bait nests were efficient both in attracting and in obtaining colonies of stingless Amazon bees by spontaneous nesting.