Nesting ecology of stingless bees (Hymenoptera, Meliponina) in urban areas: the importance of afforestation

Studies on nesting ecology have proven to be extremely important for conservation of stingless bees. This kind of study is scarce in urban landscapes. Our study aimed to analyze the abundance, density, diversity, spatial distribution and nesting habits of species belonging to the Meliponina subtribe in an urban area of the Uberlândia municipality, Minas Gerais state. We checked potential nesting sites by searching for nests from October 2009 until April 2010. We collected six worker bees from each detected nest to identify species, and estimated diversity and analyzed the spatial distribution pattern of the nests using the Shannon–Wiener and Nearest Neighbor index, respectively. We found fifty nests belonging to seven species, with Nannotrigona testaceicornis being the most abundant species (44%). The density of nests was 2.17 nests/ha, the Shannon–Wiener diversity index was H’=1.58 and the clumped distribution was the detected dispersal pattern. The height of the nests in relation to t...有关筑巢生态学的研究对于无刺蜂（stingless bees）的保护而言具有极为重要的意义。此类研究在城市景观中仍较为匮乏。本研究旨在分析米纳斯吉拉斯州乌贝兰迪亚市城区内隶属于无刺蜂亚族（Meliponina subtribe）的各物种的丰富度、密度、多样性、空间分布及筑巢习性。我们于2009年10月至2010年4月期间开展巢址搜寻工作，以排查潜在筑巢位点。对每一处发现的蜂巢，我们采集6只工蜂用于物种鉴定，并分别采用香农-威纳指数（Shannon–Wiener）与最近邻指数（Nearest Neighbor index）估算物种多样性、分析蜂巢的空间分布格局。本次研究共发现7个物种的50处蜂巢，其中淡角小无刺蜂（Nannotrigona testaceicornis）为优势物种，占比达44%。蜂巢密度为2.17处/公顷，香农-威纳多样性指数H’=1.58，且检测到的分布格局为聚集分布。蜂巢相对于地面的高度……