Floral visiting bees of Humiria balsamifera var. floribunda (Humiriaceae) and its pollen transport network, in a restinga environment

ABSTRACT

The flowers of Humiria balsamifera var. floribunda were monitored for 1 year in an area of restinga on the Brazilian coast to describe the richness of visiting bees, temporal distribution of visits, and how they transport its pollen in the community. The plant showed continuous flowering and bees were seen foraging nectar throughout the year. A total of 1,231 individuals belonging to 17 bee species were collected. The highest frequencies belonged to social species (Melipona subnitida, Apis mellifera, Melipona fasciculata) and Xylocopa cearensis. In general, bee visits were positively correlated to increased flowering intensity of the plant. The most frequent species increased their visitation frequency throughout the day, which may be related to optimal foraging decisions. Twenty-two pollen types were identified on the bee bodies. Social bees presented the highest loads of monofloral H. balsamifera pollen, which contributed to greater cross pollination success of this plant. The network structure was nested, which demonstrates the plant’s potential to stabilize the pollination system. Thus, as a generalist plant, H. balsamifera helps maintain bees in the restinga, which is currently an environment severely threatened by anthropic actions.

KEYWORDS:

• Nectar
• abiotic data
• flowering intensity
• social bees
• pollen types
• nestedness

Acknowledgments

The authors also thank Dr. José Eustáquio of UFMG for bee identification, and Mrs. Irene Aguiar Santos for accommodations at the LMNP.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the [Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e ao Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico do Maranhão – FAPEMA #1] under Grant [01171/17]; and [Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – CAPES #2] under Grant [Finance Code – 001].