Início da atividade de vôo em abelhas sem ferrão (Hymenoptera, Apidae): influência do tamanho da abelha e da temperatura ambiente

Abstract

Stingless bees’ flight activity is mostly regulated by interactions among environmental factors, such as temperature, luminosity and relative humidity, and by intranidal conditions, such as colony strength. However, body size is another factor that might influence external activities of stingless bees. Thus, the purpose of this study was to verify the influence of both body size (intertegular span) and ambient temperature on flight
activity beginning of stingless bees. At June 2001 we collected data about flight activity from twenty-seven colonies of nine stingless bees species with different body sizes (range: 1 to 3.1 mm). It was verified that both body size and ambient  temperature do influence the start of flight activity of stingless bees. Larger species began their activities in lower temperatures than smaller ones. The largest species, Melipona quadrifasciata Lepeletier, 1836 (3,1 mm), started to fly in the lowest temperature (11.3ºC), while the smallest ones, Friesella schrottkyi (Friese, 1900) (1.1 mm) and Plebeia lucii (1.0 mm), did not fly in temperatures under 20.8ºC.