Pollen

Marinho, Diego, Muniz, David B. & Azevedo, Gisele G., 2018, Nesting biology of three Megachile (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) species from Eastern Amazonia, Brazil, Revista Brasileira de Entomologia 62 (2), pp. 97-106 : 100

Pollen use

We performed acetolysis on pollen residuals and bee feces from ten M. brasiliensis nests, eight M. sejuncta nests and four M. stilbonotaspis nests from SA; from BM, we analyzed pollen residuals and bee feces of three M. brasiliensis nests, six M. sejuncta nests and thirteen M. stilbonotaspis nests ( Tables 3 and 4).

M. brasiliensis was classified as oligolectic, using mainly pollen of type Attalea sp. ( Arecaceae ) ( Fig. 5A ). However, we observed one nest at SA whose pollen content varied greatly, with pollen types of Spermacoce sp. , Ludwigia sp. , Phyllantus sp., Cotobea sp. and Tilesia sp. At APABM, almost 100% of pollen grains counted belonged to Attalea sp.

Pollen types of Attalea sp. , Tilesia sp. ( Fig. 5B ) and Lepidaploa sp. ( Fig. 5C ) were counted at all areas studied for M. stilbonotaspis , classified as narrowly polylectic. At PE and VM, the pollen type Attalea sp. was not present in August/2013 and May/2014 and pollen types of Tilesia sp. and Lepidaploa sp. were abundant on the slides analyzed. M. sejuncta was classified as narrowly polylectic at SA.

Nests of M. sejuncta presented pollen types of Attalea sp. and Myrcia sp. in the nest slides of February and Attalea sp. as predominant in April and July. An unidentified pollen type was present in nests collected in August/2011 (n = 1) and January/2012 (n = 3). Type Myrcia sp. ( Fig. 5D ) was predominant in samples of nests collected in February/2008 (n = 1) and December/2011 (n = 1). At area B, M. sejuncta used mainly type Attalea sp. ( Table 4).

Figures

Fig. 5. Main pollen types identified on Megachile slides from larvae feces: (A) type Attalea sp.; (B) type Tilesia sp.; (C) type Lepidaploa sp.; (D) type Myrcia sp. Scale bar of figures A - C 10 µm; figure D: 20 µm.