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Scaptotrigona Postica
''Scaptotrigona postica'' (also known locally in Brazil as mandaguari) is a species of stingless bee that lives mainly in Brazil. It is a eusocial bee in the tribe ''Meliponini''. ''S. postica'' is one of 25 species in the genus ''Scaptotrigona'' and is a critical pollinator of the tropical rain forests of Brazil. They construct their nests in hollowed sections of tree trunks, allowing for effective guarding at the nest entrance. This species shows colony structure similar to most members of the Meliponini tribe with three roles within the colony: queen, worker, and male. ''S. postica'' individuals have different forms of communication from cuticular hydrocarbons to pheromones and scent trails. Communication is especially useful during worker foraging for nectar and pollen through the Brazilian tropical rain forests. ''S. postica'' is a very important pollinator of the Brazilian tropical rain forests and is widely appreciated for its honey. Stingless bees account for approxima ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pierre André Latreille
Pierre André Latreille (; 29 November 1762 – 6 February 1833) was a French zoologist, specialising in arthropods. Having trained as a Roman Catholic priest before the French Revolution, Latreille was imprisoned, and only regained his freedom after recognising a rare beetle species he found in the prison, ''Necrobia ruficollis''. He published his first important work in 1796 (), and was eventually employed by the . His foresighted work on arthropod systematics and taxonomy gained him respect and accolades, including being asked to write the volume on arthropods for George Cuvier's monumental work, , the only part not by Cuvier himself. Latreille was considered the foremost entomologist of his time, and was described by one of his pupils as "the prince of entomologists". Biography Early life Pierre André Latreille was born on 29 November 1762 in the town of Brive, then in the province of Limousin, as the illegitimate child of Jean Joseph Sahuguet d'Amarzit, général ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melipona
''Melipona'' is a genus of stingless bees, widespread in warm areas of the Neotropics, from Sinaloa and Tamaulipas (México) to Tucumán and Misiones (Argentina). About 70 species are known.Grüter, C. 2020. ''Stingless Bees: Their Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution''. ''Springer Nature'', 385 pp. The largest producer of honey from ''Melipona'' bees in Mexico is in the state of Yucatán where bees are studied at an interactive park called "Bee Planet" which is within the Cuxtal Ecological Reserve. Several species are kept for honey production, such as in Brazil, where some are well-known enough to have common names, including ''uruçu'', ''mandaçaia'', ''jandaíra'', and ''manduri''. ''Melipona'' honey has long been used by humans and now is of minor commercial importance. Research is going on in improved beekeeping techniques. The Melipona bee is the only pollinator known to pollinate the vanilla plant. Pollination by Melipona bee has only occurred in Mexico and almost all vani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caryocar Brasiliense
''Caryocar brasiliense'', known as pequi (, ) or "souari nut", like its congeners, is an edible fruit popular in some areas of Brazil, especially in Centerwestern Brazil. Taxonomy The pequi tree grows up to 10 m (30 ft) tall. It is common in the central Brazilian cerrado habitatMelo (2001) from southern Pará to Paraná and northern Paraguay. Its leaves are large, tough, hairy and palmate, with three leaflets each. Unlike most other cerrado trees, it bears flowers in the dry winter months, approximately July to September. The yellowish-white flowers are hermaphroditic and bear many stamens; they somewhat resemble a huge pale St John's Wort flower (a distant relative among the Malpighiales). There are often two dozen or more flowers per inflorescence. Pollination Pollination is mainly by bats and, as usual in such cases, the flowers do not have a pleasant smell but produce copious thin nectar. Flowers open in the evening and produce nectar throughout the night ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canopy (biology)
In biology, the canopy is the aboveground portion of a plant cropping or crop, formed by the collection of individual plant crowns. In forest ecology, canopy also refers to the upper layer or habitat zone, formed by mature tree crowns and including other biological organisms ( epiphytes, lianas, arboreal animals, etc.). The communities that inhabit the canopy layer are thought to be involved in maintaining forest diversity, resilience, and functioning. Sometimes the term canopy is used to refer to the extent of the outer layer of leaves of an individual tree or group of trees. Shade trees normally have a dense canopy that blocks light from lower growing plants. Observation Early observations of canopies were made from the ground using binoculars or by examining fallen material. Researchers would sometimes erroneously rely on extrapolation by using more reachable samples taken from the understory. In some cases, they would use unconventional methods such as chairs susp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scaptotrigona Aff
''Scaptotrigona'' is a genus of bees belonging to the family Apidae. The species of this genus are found in Central and South America. Species: *'' Scaptotrigona affabra'' *'' Scaptotrigona anaulax'' *'' Scaptotrigona ascheri'' *'' Scaptotrigona aurantipes'' *'' Scaptotrigona baldwini'' *'' Scaptotrigona barrocoloradensis'' *'' Scaptotrigona bipunctata'' *'' Scaptotrigona caduceus'' *'' Scaptotrigona depilis'' *'' Scaptotrigona ederi'' *'' Scaptotrigona emersoni'' *'' Scaptotrigona extranea'' *'' Scaptotrigona faviziae'' *'' Scaptotrigona fimbriata'' *'' Scaptotrigona fulvicutis'' *'' Scaptotrigona gonzalezi'' *'' Scaptotrigona grueteri'' *'' Scaptotrigona hellwegeri'' *'' Scaptotrigona illescasi'' *'' Scaptotrigona jujuyensis'' *'' Scaptotrigona kuperi'' *'' Scaptotrigona limae'' *'' Scaptotrigona luteipennis'' *'' Scaptotrigona macarenensis'' *'' Scaptotrigona magdalenae'' *'' Scaptotrigona mexicana'' *'' Scaptotrigona nigrohirta'' *'' Scaptotrigona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drone (bee)
A drone is a male honey bee. Unlike the female worker bee, drones do not have stingers. They gather neither nectar nor pollen and are unable to feed without assistance from worker bees. A drone's only role is to mate with a maiden queen in nuptial flight. Genetics Drones carry only one type of allele at each chromosomal position, because they are haploid (containing only one set of chromosomes from the mother). During the development of eggs within a queen, a diploid cell with 32 chromosomes divides to generate haploid cells called gametes with 16 chromosomes. The result is a haploid egg, with chromosomes having a new combination of alleles at the various loci. This process is called arrhenotokous parthenogenesis or simply arrhenotoky. Because the male bee technically has only a mother, and no father, its genealogical tree is unusual. The first generation has one member (the male). One generation back also has one member (the mother). Two generations back are two members (the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foraging
Foraging is searching for wild food resources. It affects an animal's Fitness (biology), fitness because it plays an important role in an animal's ability to survive and reproduce. Optimal foraging theory, Foraging theory is a branch of behavioral ecology that studies the foraging behavior of animals in response to the environment where the animal lives. Behavioral ecologists use economic models and categories to understand foraging; many of these models are a type of optimal model. Thus foraging theory is discussed in terms of optimizing a payoff from a foraging decision. The payoff for many of these models is the amount of energy an animal receives per unit time, more specifically, the highest ratio of energetic gain to cost while foraging. Foraging theory predicts that the decisions that maximize energy per unit time and thus deliver the highest payoff will be selected for and persist. Key words used to describe foraging behavior include ''resources'', the elements necessary fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nectar
Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries or nectarines, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualists, which in turn provide herbivore protection. Common nectar-consuming pollinators include mosquitoes, hoverflies, wasps, bees, butterflies and moths, hummingbirds, honeyeaters and bats. Nectar plays a crucial role in the foraging economics and evolution of nectar-eating species; for example, nectar foraging behavior is largely responsible for the divergent evolution of the African honey bee, ''A. m. scutellata'' and the western honey bee. Nectar is an economically important substance as it is the sugar source for honey. It is also useful in agriculture and horticulture because the adult stages of some predatory insects feed on nectar. For example, a number of parasitoid wasps (e.g. the social wasp species ''Apoica flavissima'') rely ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bee Colony
A beehive is an enclosed structure in which some honey bee species of the subgenus ''Honey bee, Apis'' live and raise their young. Though the word ''beehive'' is commonly used to describe the nest of any bee colony, scientific and professional literature distinguishes ''nest'' from ''hive''. ''Nest'' is used to discuss colonies that house themselves in natural or artificial cavities or are hanging and exposed. ''Hive'' is used to describe an artificial/man-made structure to house a honey bee nest. Several species of ''Apis'' live in colonies, but for honey production the western honey bee (''Apis mellifera'') and the eastern honey bee (''Apis cerana'') are the main species kept in hives. The nest's internal structure is a densely packed group of Triangular prismatic honeycomb#Hexagonal prismatic honeycomb, hexagonal prismatic cells made of beeswax, called a honeycomb. The bees use the cells to store food (honey and pollen) and to house the Bee brood, brood (eggs, larvae, and pupa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virgin Queen Bee
A queen bee is typically an adult, mated female (gyne) that lives in a colony or hive of honey bees. With fully developed reproductive organs, the queen is usually the mother of most, if not all, of the bees in the beehive. Queens are developed from larvae selected by worker bees and specially fed in order to become sexually mature. There is normally only one adult, mated queen in a hive, in which case the bees will usually follow and fiercely protect her. The term "queen bee" can be more generally applied to any dominant reproductive female in a colony of a eusocial bee species other than honey bees. However, as in the Brazilian stingless bee ''Schwarziana quadripunctata'', a single nest may have multiple queens or even dwarf queens, ready to replace a dominant queen in a case of sudden death. Development During the warm parts of the year, female "worker" bees leave the hive every day to collect nectar and pollen. While male bees serve no architectural or pollinating purpo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apinae
The Apinae are the subfamily that includes the majority of bees in the family Apidae. It includes the familiar " corbiculate" (pollen basket) bees—bumblebees, honey bees, orchid bees, stingless bees, Africanized bees, and the extinct genus ''Euglossopteryx''. It also includes all but two of the groups (excluding Nomadinae and Xylocopinae) that were previously classified in the family Anthophoridae. Most species in the subfamily (other than honey bees, bumblebees, and stingless bees) are solitary, though several of the tribes are entirely kleptoparasitic, such as the Ericrocidini, Isepeolini, Melectini, Osirini, Protepeolini, and Rhathymini. Behaviors Certain behaviors are known from members of the Apinae that are rarely seen in other bees, including the habit of males forming "sleeping aggregations" on vegetation - several males gathering on a single plant in the evening, grasping a plant with their jaws and resting there through the night (sometimes held in place only by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apocrita
Apocrita is a suborder of insects in the order Hymenoptera. It includes wasps, bees, and ants, and consists of many families. It contains the most advanced hymenopterans and is distinguished from Symphyta by the narrow "waist" ( petiole) formed between the first two segments of the actual abdomen; the first abdominal segment is fused to the thorax, and is called the propodeum. Therefore, it is general practice, when discussing the body of an apocritan in a technical sense, to refer to the mesosoma and metasoma (or gaster) rather than the "thorax" and "abdomen", respectively. The evolution of a constricted waist was an important adaption for the parasitoid lifestyle of the ancestral apocritan, allowing more maneuverability of the female's ovipositor. The ovipositor either extends freely or is retracted, and may be developed into a stinger for both defense and paralyzing prey. Larvae are legless and blind, and either feed inside a host (plant or animal) or in a nest cell provisio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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