Articles
DIVERSITY AND OVERLAP IN POLLEN SOURCES OF THREE SPECIES OF STINGLESS BEES (APIDAE, MELIPONINAE) IN COSTA RICA
These species display different foraging strategies, T. corvina being an aggressive group forager, S. pectoralis being an intermediate aggressive group forager and T. angustula being a solitary forager.
The diversity of pollen types present in the storage pots was low for each species.
On average 20 different pollen types per nest were found, of which only three to five types were present in large quantities (> 5% of pollen volume). The most important pollen types were identified as Bursera simaruba, cf. Sapindus saponaria and a type of Moraceae. There were no significant differences in pollen diversity between the different bee species and overlap in pollen types was low (Horn’s index ranged from 0.08 to 0.36). At intraspecific level, overlap was high for S. pectoralis (Horn’s index 0.79), but low in the other species (Horn’s index ranged from 0.24 to 0.34). This low overlap at intraspecific level might be caused by low preferences for certain plant species or by different foraging conditions due to location differences.