Communities of Social Bees (Apidae: Meliponini) in Trap-Nests: the Spatial Dynamics of Reproduction in an Area of Atlantic Forest

Floral Visitation, Phytochemical and Biological Activities of Bioproducts from Tetragonisca angustula (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponini): A Review

Tetragonisca angustula (Latreille, 1811) is an indigenous neotropical stingless bee, popularly known as "Jataí", with a wide distribution in the Brazilian territory. T. angustula produces other derivatives such as propolis, geopropolis, fermented (saburá pollen), cerumen and resins, which are important in folk medicine. In this review, the objective was to gather research on the main plant species visited by T. angustula, as well as studies that verified the chemical composition and biological properties of T. angustula bioproducts. The bibliographic review was performed by searching the Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and PubMed databases for publications from 2003 to February 2023. We found 78 studies that analyzed the interactions between T. angustula and floral species, with species from the botanical families Fabaceae, Asteraceae, Malvaceae, Bignoniaceae, Solanaceae, Myrtaceae and Lamiaceae being the most reported as the main food sources for this species. The presence of compounds belonging to the class of flavonoids, phenolic acids, terpenoids and alkaloids has been identified by studying the chemical composition of honey, propolis, geopropolis and fermented pollen (saburá) in 21 studies. The data collected in the literature emphasize that these T. angustula products have remarkable biological properties, especially their antibacterial and antioxidant activities.

Essential and Potentially Toxic Elements from Brazilian Geopropolis Produced by the Stingless Bee Melipona quadrifasciata anthidioides Using ICP OES

Melipona quadrifasciata anthidioides is a species of stingless bee popularly known in Brazil as "mandaçaia". Products derived from bees for food and therapeutic uses, have stimulated the evaluation of the chemical composition of geopropolis. Concentrations of 24 essential and potentially toxic elements were determined in geopropolis samples, using a sequential optical emission spectrometer with inductively coupled plasma (ICP OES) after microwave-assisted acid digestion. Principal component analysis (PCA) and Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were used to carry out an exploratory analysis of the samples. The following elements were quantified (in mg Kg^-1): Al (320,414.40-36,911.1), As (<LoQ-4.37), Ba (38.36-211.11), Ca (672.38-94,527), Co (<LoQ-14.12), Cr (17.41-38.07), Cu (10.63-28.73), Fe (21,973.96-11,536.47), K (1974.38-9198.91), Mg (1961.17-7481.79), Mn (50.51-310.51), Na (154.55-340.46), Ni (2.28-21.74), P (16.59-51.07), Pb (3.45-8.55), Sb (<LoQ-1.64), Se (<LoQ-1.01), Sn (4.92-16.14), Sr (9.21-36.29), V (28.77-78.73) and Zn (24.34-50.31). Cd and Mo were found to be below the limit of detection (LoD) and quantification (LoQ) values of ICP OES in all investigated samples. Geopropolis can be a potential source of macro- and microelements for colonies and products derived from these bees for human consumption, contributing to their geographical origin and quality control, besides being an indicator of environmental monitoring. Graphical Abstract.

Compositional changes in bee and wasp communities along Neotropical mountain altitudinal gradient

Climate conditions tend to differ along an altitudinal gradient, resulting in some species groups' patterns of lower species richness with increasing altitude. While this pattern is well understood for tropical mountains, studies investigating possible determinants of variation in beta-diversity at its different altitudes are scarce. We sampled bee and wasp communities (Hymenoptera: Aculeata) along an altitudinal gradient (1,000-2,000 m.a.s.l.) in a tropical mountainous region of Brazil. Trap nests and Moericke traps were established at six sampling points, with 200 m difference in altitude between each point. We obtained average climate data (1970-2000) from Worldclim v2 for altitudes at each sampling site. Nest traps captured 17 bee and wasp species from six families, and Moericke traps captured 124 morphospecies from 13 families. We found a negative correlation between altitude and species richness and abundance. Temperature, precipitation, water vapor pressure, and wind speed influenced species richness and abundance, and were correlated with altitude. β-diversity was primarily determined by species turnover as opposed to nestedness, and Aculeate community similarity was higher for more similar altitudinal ranges. Moericke traps seem to be more efficient for altitudinal surveys compared to nest traps. We found high occurrence of singleton and doubleton species at all altitudes, highlighting the need for long-term studies to efficiently assess hymenopteran diversity in these environments.