Flora e caracterização polinífera para abelhas Apis mellifera L. na região de Viçosa, MG

• Ano de defesa: 2006
• Autor(a) principal: Modro, Anna Frida Hatsue
• Orientador(a): Message, Dejair
• Banca de defesa: Rieder, Arno , Carmo, Flávia Maria da Silva , Barreto, Lídia Maria Ruv Carelli
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Viçosa
• Programa de Pós-Graduação: Mestrado em Entomologia
• Departamento: Ciência entomológica; Tecnologia entomológica
• País: BR
• Palavras-chave em Português: Palinologia; Planta apícola; Abelhas
• Palavras-chave em Inglês: Palynology; Polliniferous flora; Honeybees
• Área do conhecimento CNPq: CNPQ::CIENCIAS AGRARIAS::ZOOTECNIA::PRODUCAO ANIMAL
• Link de acesso: http://locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/4000

Pollen collected from flower anther is essential for the nutrition of Apis mellifera honeybees, providing protein resource, especially to larvae and adults. Honeybee pollen is important to human nutrition for its high protein content, which varies among the plant species. This study was developed in Vicosa (UFV Apiary), and Paula Candido (Mesmel Apiary), Minas Gerais and aimed to characterize the local polliniferous flora with beekeeping potential, to study forage behavior and the nutritional composition of the trophic resources collected by the bees Five Africanized honeybee (Apis mellifera) hives were installed in each apiary. The plants, which were under observation during flowering, were harvested and identified. The pollen grains collected by the bees were harvested from August to December 2005 with the help of an intermediary pollen collecting device coupled to each hive. The microscopy laminas for melissopalynology analyses were prepared using the standard European method of Maurizio & Louveaux. In order to assess the nutritional composition of the pollen, routine analyses were carried out to determine percentage of dry matter, organic matter, mineral matter, raw protein, ether extract and total carbohydrates. The pollen-bearing plants were mainly located in flower gardens, cultivation and pasture areas. The pollinic types collected were grouped differently by the apiaries and among the hives studied, both in terms of months and collection times. The time of highest pollen collection and richest in pollinic types collected was between 6:00 pm and 12:00 am. The results suggest that the major factors influencing honeybee collection behavior are previous learning intrinsic to each colony, genetic characteristics, availability of trophic resources and different levels of competition. Nutritional composition of the pollen collected seems to be related to predominance of specific pollinic types; thus, honeybees should collect pollen from several sources to obtain a more balanced diet.