Stingless Bees ( Melipona subnitida ) Overcome Severe Drought Events in the Brazilian Tropical Dry Forest by Opting for

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Stingless Bees (Melipona subnitida) Overcome Severe Drought Events in the Brazilian Tropical Dry Forest by Opting for High-Profit Food Sources C MAIA-SILVA1,2 , AAC LIMÃO1, CI SILVA3,4 , VL IMPERATRIZ-FONSECA1,3 , M HRNCIR1,3 1

Univ Federal Rural do Semi-Árido, Mossoró, RN, Brasil Univ Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, CE, Brasil 3 Univ de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brasil 4 Univ do Estado de São Paulo, Rio Claro, SP, Brasil 2

Keywords Meliponini, melittopalynology, Caatinga, jandaíra, pot-pollen, pot-honey Correspondence Camila Maia-Silva, Univ Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, CE, Brasil; [email protected] Edited by Márcia M Maués – Embrapa Received 2 August 2019 and accepted 20 December 2019 * Sociedade Entomológica do Brasil 2020

Abstract In the Brazilian Tropical Dry Forest, the Caatinga, stingless bees (Apidae, Meliponini) need to adjust their foraging behavior to a very short and unpredictable blooming period. Melipona subnitida Ducke 1910 is one of the few meliponine species adapted to the environmental peculiarities of this biome. To get an insight into how these highly eusocial bees are able to maintain their perennial colonies despite extended periods of food scarcity, we asked the following questions: (1) At which plant species do colonies of M. subnitida collect their food during the rainy season? And (2) are there any plant species during the dry season, from which the colonies may profit for replenishing their food stores? During 1 year, we collected monthly honey and pollen samples from recently built storage pots of five colonies of M. subnitida and identified the botanical origin of the collected resources. In the course of our study, the colonies foraged at native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous species, demonstrating the importance of all plant strata for the bees’ diet. Profitable plants, which bloom mainly during the rainy season and usually produce a great number of flowers, were frequently sampled in new pots throughout the entire study, even during the dry season. From our results, we compiled a list of the most important plant species providing floral resources for bees throughout the year, including periods of drought. We recommend these plants for restoration areas to improve the conservation of native bee species and local beekeeping in the Brazilian Tropical Dry Forest.

Introduction The Tropical Dry Forest in north-eastern Brazil, the Caatinga, is characterized by a semiarid climate, with elevated annual temperatures and extended periods of drought. Average annual rainfall varies from 240 to 1500 mm, and, in about half of this ecoregion, does not exceed 700 mm (Prado 2003; Andrade et al 2017). Moreover, most of the precipitation is concentrated in three to four consecutive months, which results in an

elevated water deficit over a long period of the year (Vasconcellos et al 2010; Andrade et al 2017). Despite these harsh climate conditions for plants, the Brazilian Tropical Dry Forest hosts an important flora biodiversity with significant levels of endemism (Albuquerque et