Pollen niche of Melipona dubia, Melipona seminigra and Scaptotrigona sp. (Apidae: Meliponini) kept in indigenous communities of the Sateré Mawé Tribe, Amazonas, Brazil

Abstract

Stingless social bees have been used in the Meliponiculture as a sustainable activity by several indigenous communities in Central Amazon. Pollen samples collected by Melipona dubia, Melipona seminigra and Scaptotrigona sp. bees from communities of the Sateré Mawé tribe were analyzed and 61 pollen types were identified. The most representative botanical families in the samples were: Anacardiaceae, Arecaceae, Burseraceae, Euphorbiaceae, Dilleniaceae, Fabaceae, Melastomataceae, and Myrtaceae. Among these families, the most representative was pollen of Miconia type (Melastomataceae) collected by bees Melipona dubia and Melipona seminigra. Also, pollen of Croton cajucara (Euphorbiaceae) and Eugenia type (Myrtaceae) collected by bee Scaptotrigona sp., these species of bees presented temporary specialization (>90%) in some samples. On the other hand, Scaptotrigona sp.showed higher richness in their collections (H' =1.66 and J’= 0.45), followed by Melipona seminigra (H' = 1.43 and J’= 0.39) and Melipona dubia with (H' = 0.45 and J’= 0.14). The connectance of interactions between bees and plants in the study locations was 19.37%, which is considered high for palynological data. The other network metrics, both for presence and absence (NODF= 54.07) and for quantitative matrix (WNODF = 34.03) were found to be significant (p < 0.001) and highly nested. Cluster analysis from the collected resources presented two distinct groups, a group formed by the genus Melipona and another by Scaptotrigona.The results show that even though they have their peculiarities in the collections, these groups of bees share many resources, presenting themselves as both generalists and temporary specialists, according to the colony’s needs. © 2021 International Bee Research Association.