Diversity of native bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) and use of floral resources in a section of the Chaco Serrano (Bosque Serrano) in Central Argentina

Foz do Iguassu

Congreso; XXI International Congress of Entomology; 2000

Sociedad Brasilera de Entomologia

More than 16.000 species of bees collect pollen, nectar, oils or perfumes that plants offer as resources. The interaction insect-flower is an interesting chapter in the studies about the biology of the members that interact in such relationship, being the pollination one of the most important aspects. Hymenoptera meets the most developed pollinators and besides it is the group having the greatest importance a regards the number and diversity of plants they visit. Starting from the need of nectar and pollen, the tendency to frequent search of these resources led to specialisation, not only morphologically, but also in behaviour among the bees that adjusted to the floral mechanisms of the Angiosperms.It has been considered that the limitation in the access to a floral resource, which the bees make use of, would act as a factor capable of determining the oligolectic character among them. However, another point of view states that such influence does not exist and that in general terms a specialist bee is capable of supplying more resource than a generalist. Both points of views coincide in underlining that the specialist bees collect more pollen by force of search. The knowledge that there is about the identity and strategies of the species of native bees in Argentina are rare. However, the role they played would be essential to all the ecological systems. In order to contribute to clear up the role of the native bees in the natural systems in Cordoba, this work is done within the frame of the project: Interaction of Apoidea (Hymenoptera) with the native flora and horticultural cultivation in Cordoba (Argentina)To know the function of the different bee families (Hymenoptera, Apoidea) associated to the native flora of certain section in the Chaco Serrano in Cordoba (Argentina).