Genetic diversity and population structure of orchid bees from the Brazilian savanna

Abstract

Based on microsatellite markers and non-lethal sampling of orchid bee males, we assessed the genetic diversity and population structure of three species, Euglossa pleosticta, Euglossa imperialis, and Eulaema nigrita, collected from forest remnants in the Brazilian savanna biome. Among these species, El. nigrita has being acknowledged as more tolerant to savanic areas, since it is more frequently found in these habitats than the other two species. Thus, we hypothesized that species more associated with forest areas would show lower levels of genetic diversity and higher levels of population structure, since open areas could represent a barrier to the movement of these species. We observed lower levels of genetic diversity (H_E) in the species highly associated with forest areas (Eg. pleosticta, H_E = 0.66; Eg. imperialis, H_E = 0.44) compared to El. nigrita (H_E = 0.81). Concerning the genetic structure, it was only remarkable among samples of Eg. pleosticta, a species strongly associated with the forest remnants. Despite the documented dispersal capacity of euglossine bees, maintenance of the connections among forest areas in this biome seems to be critical for their conservation in the Brazilian savanna.

Keywords:

• microsatellites
• euglossine
• Brazilian savanna
• gene flow
• Cerrado

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Prof. Dr. Ivan Schiavini for the floristic information about the remnants, the owners of the São José, Marimbondo, and Irara farms for allowing the work to be carried out, and to FAPEMIG – Fundação de Apoio a Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (APQ Process 01910-14) and CNPq - Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (PELD). S.C. Augusto and S.H. Sofia received research fellowships from CNPq. W. Frantine-Silva would like to thank CAPES for the PNPD research fellowship.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplementary Table S1 is available via the ‘Supplementary’ tab on the article’s online page (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00218839.2021.1898788).