Entomofauna de abelhas e seu potencial zootécnico em área urbanizada no litoral cearense

Abstract

Bee entomofauna and its management potential in an urban area on the coast of ceará, brazil Bees are important for humans because of their products and their role in the pollination of native plants and crops. For some years, the decline of these animals has been reported. The urbanization, which is a land-use change type is one of the primary causes of this phenomenon. Considering the conservation potential of urban areas and the possibility of bee management in these locations, the present study aimed to get information about the diversity of these bees, their management potential, and their relationship with the urbanized environment of Campus do Pici, Federal University of Ceará, Fortaleza, Ceará. The sampling took place in August/2017 and July/2019, where biweekly collections were carried out covering a six-kilometer transect twice a day. The methods used for bee sampling were sweeping net, aromatic baits, and pan traps. The data about the ecologic and management characteristics of bee species were consulted in books and articles already published in the literature, while the data about floral resources were taken from catalogs about the flora found in Campus do Pici introduced in it (RCPol) in addition to personal databases. To assess the seasonality of the bee community it was used circular statistics with model-selection procedures relied on the maximum likelihood estimation method for choosing the distribution models for the data. A total of 9614 individuals were collected belonging to five families, 17 tribes, and 65 species. Most bee species are native, solitary, generalists and nest in cavities. As for the management potential, several bees pollinate important crops but the groups that showed the higher potential for management were Anthidiini, Centridini, Meliponini, and Xylocopini. Regarding floral resources, bees have a good supply of floral resources during the year with the families Rubiaceae, Fabaceae, and Asteraceae being some of the most important families for a good part of the bee species. Regarding seasonality, the bee community of Campus do Pici has peaks that depend on plants species the groups are most related to and on the rainfall volume. Finally, the campus has a bee fauna with diverse ecologic and taxonomic characteristics and high management potential that needs to be preserved.