Plantas de interesse meliponícola em fragmento de Mata Atlântica no litoral norte da Bahia, Brasil

Abstract

This study surveyed the flora exploited by stingless bees and described morphologically its pollen grains in an Atlantic Forest fragment in the north coast of the State of Bahia. The flora survey conducted through biweekly collections of flowering plants for 24 months (January to December 2015 and June to May 2017-2018) on pre-established trails within a radius of 500 meters around the meliponary installed in the area. All flowering plants were tagged, photographed, collected, herborized, identified and deposited in the Herbarium of the Universidade do Estado da Bahia, Campus II (HUNEB). Floral buds were sampled and stored in the Laboratory of Plant Micromorphology of the Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (LAMIV/UEFS) and processed according to the usual techniques in palynology with the use of acetolysis. The tagged plants were monitored and analyzed for the presence/absence of flowers, visits of stingless bees and the type of floral resource foraged. The results are presented in two chapters, the first describes the pollen morphology of the plant species occurring in the vicinity of the meliponary in the area, which will contribute to research related to the palynological analysis of stingless bee products. The 80 species of plants identified belong to 69 genera and 31 families, Asteraceae (11spp.), Fabaceae (11spp.) And Rubiaceae (eight spp.) were the most species-rich, and revealed a great variation in the morphological characteristics analyzed (size, shape, polarity, symmetry, exine apertures and ornamentation). The second chapter presents a calendar of flowering of the plant species, besides a list of those exploited by stingless bees in the area, which provided important data for the knowledge of the floral resources available by the surveyed stingless bee flora. Of these plants, 60% are herbaceous, and nectar is the main floral resource. Among the 80 species listed, 37.5% had their flowers visited by stingless bees, of which 56.67% are nectariferous, 23.33% polliniferous and 20% polliniferous-nectariferous, and also Borreria verticillata (L.) G.Mey., Conocliniopsis prasiifolia (DC.) R.M.King & H.Rob., Commelina erecta L., Mimosa pudica L., Richardia grandiflora Cham. & Schltdl.) Steud. and Turnera subulata Sm., presented flowers during the whole flowering period analyzed, offering pollen and or floral nectar to the local stingless bees. Key words: