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| Author(s): |
Daniela de Almeida
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | Piracicaba. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALA/BC) |
| Defense date: | 2002-11-05 |
| Examining board members: |
Luis Carlos Marchini;
Augusta Carolina de Camargo Carmello Moreti;
Sinval Silveira Neto
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| Advisor: | Luis Carlos Marchini |
| Abstract | |
This research deals with the community of bees from the "cerrado" area of the Campus of the University of São Paulo, in Pirassununga, State of São Paulo, Brazil. The bees occurring on flowering plants were fortnightly sampled from July 2000 to July 2002. The honeys produced by the most frequent bee species were characterized as well. The 511 collected specimens were composed by 51 species and 31 genera of 4 families of the Apoidea. The bee community of the "cerrado" followed the same general pattern of the neotropical communities, presenting many species with few individuals and few species with many individuals. The family Apidae ("sensu latu") was the most abundant one with the highest number of species. One observed long flowering period plants together with short flowering ones, thus providing nutritional resources for the bees the year round. Visiting bees were collected in 52.86% of the 140 flowering plant species, most of them (18.92%) from the family Asteraceae. However Didimopanax vinosum (Araliaceae) was the plant species presenting the highest number of visiting bees. Concerning the species of meliponids studied the honey production was low due to the restricted number of colonies found in the area. As to Apis mellifera the honey production was higher from August to November, but it was impossible to collect samples from December to February. The mean of the physicochemical parameters used to analyse the honey samples from the two "cerrado" areas do fit with the standard rules. Through pollen analyses one observed that the bees have visited mainly plants of Eucalyptus sp. and Citrus sp. in the neighboring areas to their hives. (AU) | |