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Foraging behaviour of the stingless bee Melipona orbignyi (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini) in a dry forest assessed by multivariate analysis from palynological data

Abstract Pollen analysis was applied to study the botanical composition of honey and pollen stored by Melipona orbignyi in its southernmost distributional range. Many studies have revealed that robust buzzing bees of this genus are associated with diverse plant families, some of which are different to those exploited by the remaining genera of Meliponini. Cluster analysis was performed to assess similarity in botanical composition between pot-pollen and pot-honey provisions from different colonies. The results indicated that each colony was capable to access to different plant species for obtaining nectar and pollen, a fact observed when discarding the contaminated honey samples. As honey samples were not clustered together with other ones but with pollen samples indicating a similar botanical composition, it could be assumed that a same plant species provided nectar and pollen to bees. Resource partitioning was not clearly observed among a subset of late spring colonies, as two families of high richness of species and abundant in this dry forest (the mimosoid clade in Fabaceae and Capparaceae) were foraged. A higher number of synchronously sampled colonies would be necessary to detect this ecological aspect. The botanical composition of samples of M. orbignyi was governed by both random factors such as local and temporary flower availability plus preferences for particular plant species such as those from Solanaceae and Ximeniaceae. The Capparaceae and Ximeniaceae are here reported for the first time as intensively foraged pollen resources by the genus Melipona.