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Pot-Pollen in Stingless Bee Melittology pp 241–252Cite as

On the Trophic Niche of Bees in Cerrado Areas of Brazil and Yeasts in Their Stored Pollen

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Abstract

We studied eight species of meliponines native to the vast savanna and plateau area of “Cerrado” in central Brazil, where fire and human activities have removed over half of the natural habitat. We discuss the pot-pollen and yeast species and found 247 different pollen types. Melipona quinquefasciata and Trigona spinipes used only 14 and 19 pollen types, respectively. Yeasts of the Starmerella clade were found, and stingless bee species concentrated pollen harvesting on a relatively narrow range of flowers.

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Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank Dr. Patricia Vit for the opportunity of this chapter, for guidance, patience, and careful attention in every detail needed for the improvement of the manuscript. We thank Dr. David W. Roubik for his valuable and generous comments and corrections and for improving the English. We are grateful to Dr. Clemens Schlindwein for Tetragonisca angustula nest photos. We are also grateful to reviewers for their constructive suggestions in this chapter. The authors were financially supported by grants of the Brazilian science foundations, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) and Fundação do Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Botânica, ICB, CP 486, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, 31270-901, Brazil

    Paula Calaça

  2. Serviço de Recursos Vegetais e Opoterápicos, Diretoria de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento, Fundação Ezequiel Dias (Funed), Rua Conde Pereira Carneiro, 80, Gameleira, Belo Horizonte, MG, 30510-010, Brazil

    Paula Calaça, Cláudia Simeão & Esther Margarida Bastos

  3. Departamento de Microbiologia, ICB, CP 486, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, 31270-901, Brazil

    Carlos Augusto Rosa

  4. Departamento de Biodiversidade Evolução e Meio Ambiente, ICEB, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, MG, 35400-000, Brazil

    Yasmine Antonini

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  1. Paula Calaça
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  2. Cláudia Simeão
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Correspondence to Paula Calaça .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Food Science Department, Faculty of Pharmacy and Bioanalysis, Universidad de Los Andes, Merida, Venezuela

    Patricia Vit

  2. Biology Department, School of Philosophy, Sciences and Literature, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirao Preto, Brazil

    Silvia R.M. Pedro

  3. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panama

    David W. Roubik

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Calaça, P., Simeão, C., Bastos, E.M., Rosa, C.A., Antonini, Y. (2018). On the Trophic Niche of Bees in Cerrado Areas of Brazil and Yeasts in Their Stored Pollen. In: Vit, P., Pedro, S., Roubik, D. (eds) Pot-Pollen in Stingless Bee Melittology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61839-5_17

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