Atividade de voo da abelha moça branca (Frieseomelitta doederleini) no período de inverno na cidade de Recife - PE

Abstract

Bees have been gaining a great prominence in recent years, because people are increasingly looking for organic and sustainable products. Beekeeping, both stinging bees and melipona bees, fit these standards, and show themselves as an alternative breeding and source of income, especially for small producers. This work aims to verify the flight and collection activities of the white lady bee (Frieseomelitta doederleini.) in August and September, in the city of Recife, Pernambuco, metropolitan region. The present study was carried out from August 2022 to September 2022 in the meliponary of the Apiculture and Meliponiculture Sector, Department of Animal Science of the Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, located in the neighborhood of Dois Irmãos, in Recife - PE. The boxes chosen for observation were randomly selected and observations were performed three days a month. The observations were made in the period from 09:00 am to 4:00 pm, for one minute each hour. In the observations, the number of bees that entered the colony carrying pollen and the number of bees that entered with no apparent cargo were counted, being counted as nectar or water. Temperature and relative humidity data were also recorded with a digital thermohygrometer installed in the meliponary. The movement of the bees was greater in the morning, a pattern that was repeated in all months. The tendency was greater collection of nectar and water, when compared to pollen collection. Thus, it was concluded that the bees (Frieseomelitta doederleini) prefer to collect both nectar and pollen in the morning, decreasing their frequency during the day in the months studied.