Objectives:

To know the forage habits related to pollen collected by Nannotrigona mellaria in two urban environments of Valle del Cauca.

Scope:

Inventory of plant species mostly used by this group of bees as a source of pollen for their diet.

Methodology:

Corbicular pollen of worker bees was collected in four nests: three at Universidad del Valle (Cali, Colombia) and one at Universidad Nacional, Palmira Campus during a period of 24 weeks between June 2013 and January 2014. In the same way, pollen was collected from plant species near the nesting site and the comparison was made. A grouping analysis was carried out to determine similarity between the diets and a Dufrêne and Legendre’s species indicator analysis was performed to determine the type of pollen related to each beehive.

Main results:

The species collects pollen from 29 plant families and 73 different species, being the species of the Fabaceae family the most represented among the collected material (29% of the records) and Leucaena leucocephala the most frequent species (18% of the records). Fourteen species with a significant indicator value were reported (p <0.05), being the beehive at Universidad Nacional the one that presented a greater number (seven in total).

Conclusions:

The N. mellaria species collects pollen from a wide variety of plants in the study sites and therefore it has great potential as a pollinator in urban areas. In addition, this species has preference in the collection of leguminous plants pollen, possibly due to their abundance in the study area and their abundant flowering visually appealing to the Apidae and because they can offer nectar as well as pollen.

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