Abstract

RODRIGUEZ PARILLI, Severiano, MANRIQUE, Antonio and VELASQUEZ, Mercedes. Community’s diversity of stingless bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponina) in a Venezuela tropical dry forest. Zootecnia Trop., Dec. 2008, vol.26, no.4, p.523-530. ISSN 0798-7269.

The stingless bees (SB) complete environmental indispensable functions by means of the pollination and they are susceptible to be used in the agricultural production. In order to know the SB present in 10,000 m² of tropical dry forest in San Juan de Los Morros, Guárico state, Venezuela; a diversity evaluation was carried out. Twenty four samplings distributed evenly among the months from July to December 2004. Forty four individuals belonging to nine species were accounted for and ordered according to their abundance as: Trigona sp 1 > Nannotrigona testaceicornis > Tetragonisca angustula > Plebeia sp 2 > Trigonisca sp. > Trigona amalthea > Plebeia sp1 > Trigona sp 2 > Partamona sp. Trigona sp 1 was the most constant and frequent species. N. testaceicornis and T. angustula were the accessory and frequent species in this habitat. The values obtained from index ecology were: Margalef diversity (8.74), Shannon - Wiener diversity (1.92), and Simpson index (0.18). The months with higher richness and individuals’ abundance were september and october, and the family Piperaceae registered the biggest number of visits by the SB.

Keywords: meliponinae; stingless bee; pollination; Venezuela.