Abstract
Records about stingless bee-fungi interaction are very rare. In Brazilian Amazonia, workers of Trigona crassipes (Fabricius, 1793) and Trigona fulviventris Guérin, 1835 visiting two stinkhorn species, Dictyophora sp. and Phallus sp., respectively, were observed. The workers licked the fungi gleba, a mucilaginous mass of spores covering the pileum. Neither gleba residue nor spores were found on the body surface of these bee workers. These observations indicate that these bee species include spores as a complement in their diet. On the other hand, they also suggest that these stingless bees can, at times, facilitale spore dispersal, in case intact spores are eliminated with the feces.
Stingless bee-fungi interaction; Dictyophora; Phallus; Phallales; robbery; spore dispersal; Trigona
SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION
Stingless bees (Hymenoptera, Meliponini) feeding on stinkhorn spores (Fungi, Phallales): robbery or dispersal?1 1 Publication number 302 of the PDBFF (INPA/SI).
Marcio L. OliveiraI,II; Elder F. MoratoI,II
IDepartamento de Ciências da Natureza, Universidade Federal do Acre. 69915-900 Rio Branco, Acre, Brasil
IIProjeto Dinâmica Biológica de Fragmentos Florestais (PDBFF-INPA/Smithsonian Institution). Caixa postal 478, Manaus, 69011-970 Amazonas, Brasil
ABSTRACT
Records about stingless bee-fungi interaction are very rare. In Brazilian Amazonia, workers of Trigona crassipes (Fabricius, 1793) and Trigona fulviventris Guérin, 1835 visiting two stinkhorn species, Dictyophora sp. and Phallus sp., respectively, were observed. The workers licked the fungi gleba, a mucilaginous mass of spores covering the pileum. Neither gleba residue nor spores were found on the body surface of these bee workers. These observations indicate that these bee species include spores as a complement in their diet. On the other hand, they also suggest that these stingless bees can, at times, facilitale spore dispersal, in case intact spores are eliminated with the feces.
Key words: Stingless bee-fungi interaction, Dictyophora, Phallus, Phallales, robbery, spore dispersal, Trigona
Full text available only in PDF format.
Texto completo disponível apenas em PDF.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. The authors thank João M.F. Camargo and Silvia R.M. Pedro for bee identification; Vera L. Bononi, Marina Capelari and Jair Putzke for fungus identification; Cleber I. Salimon and Gisele G. Azevedo for their communications; Maria Cristina Gaglianone and Gabriel A.R. Melo for valuable comments on the manuscript, J. Christopher Brown for language revision and PDBFF (INPA-SI) and SUFRAMA for support.
Recebido em 02.IX.1999; aceito em 16.VIII.2000.
- Burr, B.; W. Barthlott & C. Westerkamp. 1996. Staheliomyces (Phallales) visited by Trigona (Apidae): melittophily in spore dispersal of an Amazonian stinkhorn? Jour. Trop. Ecol. 12:441-445.
- Camargo, J.M.F. & D.W. Roubik. 1991. Systematics and bionomics of the apoid obligate necrophages: the Trigona hypogea group (Hymenoptera: Apidae; Meliponinae). Biol. Jour. Linn. Soc. 44:13-39.
- Gugliota, A. de M. & M. Capelari. 1999. Taxonomia de Basidiomicetos, p. 69-102. In: V.L.R. Bononi (Ed). Zigomicetos, Basidiomicetos e Deuteromicetos. Noções básicas de taxonomia e aplicações biotecnológicas. São Paulo, Instituto de Botânica, Secretaria Estadual de Meio Ambiente, 184p.
- Putzke, J. & M.T.L. Putzke. 1998. Os reinos dos fungos. Santa Cruz do Sul, Edunise, Vol. I, 606p.
- Roubik, D.W. 1982. Obligate necrophagy in the social bee. Science 217:1059-1060.
- ______. 1989. Ecology and Natural History of Tropical Bees. New York, Cambridge Univ. Press, X+514p.
-
7Tuno, N. 1998. Spore dispersal of Dictyophora fungi (Phallaceae) by flies. Ecol. Res. 13:7-15.
Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
11 May 2009 -
Date of issue
Sept 2000
History
-
Received
02 Sept 1999 -
Accepted
16 Aug 2000
