Foraging behaviour of bee pollinators on the tropical weed Triumfetta semitriloba: departure rules from flower patches

We studied the departure rules from flower patches used by bee pollinators of the tropical shrub weed Triumfetta semitriloba Jacq. (Tiliaceae). Flowering plants were distributed in well delimited clumps, in each of two pasture areas (A1 and A2) and one area of forest gap (A3), in Viçosa, southeaster...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Collevatti, R. G., Campos, L. A. O., Schoereder, J. H.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:1997
País:Brasil
Institución:Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV)
Repositorio:LOCUS Repositório Institucional da UFV
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:locus.ufv.br:123456789/23052
Acceso en línea:https://doi.org/10.1007/s000400050056
http://www.locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/23052
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Foraging behaviour
Departure rules
Pollination
Optimal foraging
Solitary bees
Descripción
Sumario:We studied the departure rules from flower patches used by bee pollinators of the tropical shrub weed Triumfetta semitriloba Jacq. (Tiliaceae). Flowering plants were distributed in well delimited clumps, in each of two pasture areas (A1 and A2) and one area of forest gap (A3), in Viçosa, southeastern Brazil. Five solitary bee species, Augochlorella michaelis, Augochloropsis cupreola, Pseudocentron paulistana, Ceratinula sp., Melissodes sexcincta, and one social bee, Plebeia droryana, were observed. Three departure rules were examined:(1) "residence time" (time spent per patch); (2) "giving-up time" (time spent in the patch between the last successful resource encounter and departure); (3) "probabilistic rule". Three log-linear models were delineated to analyze the "probabilistic rule" of departure: (1); DP*;TLF*;TPF*;TTP; (2) DP*;TLF*;TPF*;ALF; (3) DP*;TLF*;TPF*;NFV, where DP is departure from the patch; TLF is time spent in the last visited flower; TPF is time spent in penultimate visited flower; TTP is total time spent in the current patch; ALF is activity in the last visited flower; NVF is total number of visited flowers on the current patch. Flowering plants were considered as flower patches. The results showed that the departure from patches of flowers was influenced by intrinsic factors, such as body size, energetic requirements and pollen load size, and by extrinsic factors, such as resource availability and distribution, and density of resource patches. Small bodied bees, with lower energetic requirements and smaller pollen loads (Ceratinula sp. and P. droryana) or bees which occurred in A3, the area with fewer flowers per patch and lower density of flower patches ( Ceratinula sp. and A. michaelis), used a "residence time" departure rule. Species with larger body size or which occurred on areas of higher density of flower patches and with more flowers per patch, A1 and A2 (P. paulistana, M. sexcincta, A. cupreola), used a "probabilistic" role of departure.