Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) inventory in the Parque Estadual Morro do Diabo, São Paulo, Brazil

ABSTRACT

Efforts to catalogue biodiversity and describe its spatial distribution represent one of the pillars of conservation science. Bee community inventories provide fundamental data for determining the geographical distribution, seasonal fluctuation, and richness and relative abundance of important pollinator species that inhabit a particular ecosystem. In the present work, the bee fauna of the largest Atlantic Forest remnant in the western region of São Paulo State was inventoried through systematic structured collections, being the first complete inventory of bees in this portion of the state. Malaise traps were installed in Parque Estadual Morro do Diabo (PEMD) and revisited monthly from December 2009 to February 2011. A total of 812 individuals were collected, belonging to 62 species, 34 genera and 14 bee tribes. All five Brazilian bee subfamilies were sampled, with Apinae and Halictinae being the most representative in number of species. The most abundant species were Schwarziana quadripunctata, Trigona spinipes and Plebeia remota. Of the collected species, 14% were kleptoparasites, and when the relative abundance is assessed disregarding the influence of eusocial bees (Meliponini), about 35% of the specimens are males; specimens that are not commonly sampled during traditional bee inventories employing most commonly entomological nets. The inventory of the bee fauna native to the PEMD serves as the basis for further studies and projects regarding the conservation and management of the local fauna and flora.

KEYWORDS:

• Apoidea
• Atlantic Forest
• bee assemblages
• conservation
• diversity
• Malaise trap

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Gabriel A. R. Melo, Rodrigo B. Gonçalves, Cindy Julieth Celis, Felipe Vivallo, Anderson Lepeco and Léo C. Rocha-Filho for bee identifications. TOA is also grateful to Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – CNPq (Process 152579/2016-8) and Fundação Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – CAPES (Finance Code 001) for fellowships. KSR also thanks FAPESP and PROTAX/CNPq for post-doctoral grants (Grants 2010/17046 and 152579/2016-8, respectively). CRFB thanks FAPESP and CNPq (INCT) for continuous support. We thank the environmental department Instituto Florestal - Secretaria de Infraestrutura e Meio Ambiente for the collection permits (Process 260108 – 006.874/2009).

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 Programa de Capacitação em Taxonomia – PROTAX (Process 2010/17046) grant to CRFB with funding of Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – CNPq (Process 440574/2015-3) and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo – FAPESP (Process 2016/50378-8). This study was also financed in part by the Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia dos Hymenoptera Parasitoides (FAPESP grant 2008/57949-4 and 2014/50940-2, and CNPq grant 465562/2014-0).