Caracterização das fontes de recursos tróficos para abelhas dos gêneros Melipona e Scaptotrigona nas áreas da comunidade indígena Sateré Sawé, Amazonas

Abstract

Bees from the Meliponini tribe form a fairly diverse group of social bees and exhibit enormous plasticity, niches and behaviors. To understand this universe between bee and plant, palynology is the tool capable of providing important information about this interaction. The objective of this work was to analyze the trophic resources from a palynological point of view for different bee species colonies of the genera Melipona and Scaptotrigona. Pollen and honey samples collected by bees from the genera Melipona Illiger, 1806 and Scaptotrigona Moure, 1942 were identified from communities of the Sateré Mawé indigenous tribe. The samples were collected in the Ilha Michiles, Nova Esperança, Monte Horeb, Nova América and Vila Nova II communities located along the Marau River in the municipality of Maués, Amazonas, Brazil (3°39'45.00"S, 57°20'17.99''W). The collections of this work were part of the project "Native Bees of the Sateré Mawé Indigenous Area: Mapping Pollination and Characterizing Meliponiculture Products. Honey samples (pots) were collected from Scaptotrigona nigrohirta bees (4 pots) from the Michiles Island bee community, Scaptotigona sp. (9 pots) and Melipona seminigra (6 pots) from Nova Esperança, Melipona seminigra (8 pots) from Monte Horeb, and Melipona seminigra (5 pots), Melipona dubia (4 pots), Melipona sp. (6 pots) and Scaptotrigona sp. (7 pots) from Nova America, totaling 49 honey samples. Pollen samples were collected from Melipona dubia (8 pots) in the Vila Nova II community, Melipona seminigra (21 pots) from Nova Esperanca and Scaptotrigona sp. (22 pots) from Nova America, totaling 51 samples. Regarding honey samples, the most important plant families in this study were: Anacardiaceae, Arecaceae, Burseraceae, Dichapetalaceae, Dilleniaceae, Eufhorbiaceae, Fabaceae, Lecythidaceae, Polygalaceae, Myrtaceae, Melastomataceae, Rhamnaceae and Sacelicaae. For pollen samples, the most representative plant families were: Melastomataceae, Anacardiaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Dilleniaceae, Myrtaceae and Fabaceae (Mimosoideae and Caesalpinioideae). Even though all bees were generalists, a preference for pollen type in relation to bee genus was found, ex. pollen samples demonstrated that the genus Melipona has high affinity to Myconia type pollen, while Scaptotrigona prefers Croton cajucara. Additionally, different bee species in the same community presented significant overlapping indices. Another important factor was that two groups (one for Melipona species and another for Scaptotrigona species) formed from all honey and pollen samples. Despite the particularities of each bee group, the third chapter showed a high degree of nesting and a high generalization of the network which was supported by the connectance index. This study demonstrates the importance of these plants for maintaining these bees and for the development of meliponiculture in Amazonas.