Ecologia de nidificação e diversidade genética de Melipona subnitida em uma área do Parque Nacional dos Lençóis Maranhenses.

Abstract

Melipona subnitida Ducke, 1910, a characteristic species of the northeastern sertão and that has adapted to other environments as the cerrado was, recently, Rediscovered, in 2006, in the restinga of the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park (PNLM). Although it plays an important role in ecosystems, it is threatened with extinction because of of deforestation in the region. Aiming to understand their distribution, nesting in the environment restinga and the genetic diversity among the populations of the Maranhão coast, is that does the present work. For the search of nests in Lençóis Maranhenses, a systematic methodology was established, starting from a pre-existing meliponary and from the transects were surveyed at different distances from the meliponary, totalizing 18 hectares. The individuals of the nests obtained through their searches and those identified communities were compared genetically, with another study carried out previously in a population of jandaíra in Barreirinhas, the order to determine the genetic diversity among the identified populations of this bee in Maranhão. The nesting sites were represented mostly by Humiria Balsamifera Mart harboring 88% of M. subnitida nests. Unusual apparel here observed was the nesting of this species of bee in a mangrove ecosystem, in Avicennia germinans. L. The density of nests per hectare was 1.02 and the Distribution Variance / Mean equal to 2 in PNLM and showed a dispersion pattern aggregate of the species, which is possibly related to the composition of the vegetation, Besides the dependency behavior existing between the daughter-colony and the colonies mother. Molecular results show absence of genetic variability between populations of the PNLM, of the Island in the Parnaíba Delta and those compared with a previously studied Barreirinhas population, implying ancestral origin common, but with haplotype formation in each of the populations. The absence of genetic variability can be explained by being a young species with low of limited fecundity and dispersion, with absence of gene flow between populations, Which allowed the formation of four haplotypes. The formation of haplotypes possibly was favored by the fact that the bees are in an area where, Until very recently, meliponicultura did not exist, making trade impossible facilitated by man.