Katie Kinney
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Aline Martins
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology / LSA
Program:
Authors: Katie Kinney, Karina Chaidez, Aline Martins, Carolyn Proença, Thais Vasconcelos
Session: Session 3: 11:00 am – 11: 50 am
Poster: 1
Abstract
As pollinators are threatened by ongoing global changes, understanding what floral traits attract stingless bees is important for the conservation of these species and promote plant reproduction. Stingless bees are important pollinators of tropical regions, yet little is known about their foraging behavior. We question the extent of their generalist behavior and suggest the existence of a pattern of preferred floral traits, usually involving small and open whitish flowers with abundant resources. Using a database of plants visited by stingless bees in the South American Cerrado savanna, we assessed plant and floral traits such as flower color, the presence of nectar guides or rewards, sexual system, stamen exposure, floral symmetry, plant habit and height. The data regarding these plants’ traits was compiled through virtual herbarium databases, images, and literary records of species or their families. Based on our observations, the floral traits stingless bees seemed to prefer included radially symmetric flowers with exerted stamens and absent nectar guides. Out of all visited flowers, 54.8% were white and 30.27% yellow. The visited plants were most commonly shrubs/subshrubs (88.5%). All flowers offered pollen, but for 40% of the species, this was the only reward available, while 52% also offered nectar. These results align with our initial hypothesis of white flowers attracting more bees and also supports our idea that bees prefer more open flowers with exerted stamens since an overwhelming majority of the flowers bees visited had exerted stamens. Bees also seemed to show a preference for more resource abundant flowers, specifically the ones that offered nectar in addition to pollen. While our results are yet to be completed, we can easily see this research having strong implications for the foraging pattern of stingless bees and would contribute to this subject that is less studied in the field.
