ABELHAS SOLITÁRIAS (HYMENOPTERA, APOIDEA) QUE NIDIFICAM EM CAVIDADES PRÉ-EXISTENTES EM ÁREA FRAGMENTADA, AMAZÔNIA ORIENTAL.

Abstract

The solitary bees represent 85% of the species among the Apoidea and are fundamental for the balance of the Rainforests, as play a very valuable ecosystem service. However, the state of deterioration of the natural areas ends up interfering in the dynamism of the bee-plant interactions, in addition to depleting the nesting sites, fundamental for the survival of these insects. The present study was conducted in a fragment of the Amazon Forest with 15 hectares of vegetation cover located in Carutapera, MA, Brazil. The objective of this study was to evaluate the community of solitary bees in an isolated forest environment. The bees were sampled for 12 months (January / 2017 to December / 2017) in a 100 m transect inside the fragment of the area, using 360 nests-traps with variable opening diameters (06 mm to 16 mm) distributed in 10 equidistant points. A total of seventy nests of 22 bee species and three parasites were collected. Apinae represented with 9 spp. and Megachilinae with 16 spp. Among the listed genera, Megachile and Centris, corresponded respectively to 7 and 5 spp. of the wealth. The bees came all year round. The months with the highest nesting activity were November, October and December, especially for Anthodioctes lunatus that exclusively nest during this period (dry), while Euglossa hemichlora showed higher activity associated with the rainy season. Although 4 species were dominant, the community was generally uniform (J = 0.78) and diverse (H = 2.58). Our study has shown that even in such a restricted area, it can keep a high number of solitary bee species.