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LIKELY CONSEQUENCES OF THE DESTRUCTION OF STINGLESS BRAZILIAN BEES (MELIPONINI) This paper contains a discussion of the effects, present and future, of the gradual elimination of the social stingless honey bees (Apidae, Meliponini) from Brazilian forests. 1 Five factors are eliminating these bees (about 250-300 different species): a) forest fires, b) men that are expert in finding colonies of these bees (honeyhunters), c) unsufficient natural area indicated by the law that regulates what forest owners must leave uncut, d) sawmills cutters who look for older trees, which usually have more nest-site cavities and e) continuous deforestation. 2 The sex allele (xo) system makes it imperative that in each forest area the number of colonies of a species be greater than 44, otherwise this population will be eliminated. The same happens to apiaries of isolated beekeepers (or... meliponidkeepers). 3 Bees are an integral part of the ecossystem of the region they inhabit and their main function in nature is the pollination of flowers with consequent production of fruits and seeds. Many species of plants and bees co-evolved and specialized in such a way that many species (14% in our sample) are pollinated by only one species of bees. Recent faunistic studies in São Paulo State on Cerrado flowers show a lack of Melipona species in them when compared with data obtained 50 years ago: indicating the effect of beehunters who look preferentially for Melipona colonies. 4 It is emphasized that any reforestation project for ecological purposes must take into account the bee species, especially the meliponids, if the aim is a permanent forest that reproduces itself. The effect in nature of the reduction or extintion of the pollinator bees is similar to a lethal, or semi-lethal or detrimental gene, that would damage the whole process of seed production, changing the whole composition of plant species in the future generations with unpredictable consequences for the composition of future animal species populations. Three programs for the conservation of three Melipona species are being carried out by the authors. One in the State of Espirito Santo with a very narrowly adapted bee, Melipona capixaba, twice the size of Apis mellifera, which has a distribution in the Serra-do-Mar of no more than 90 km of radius centered in Venda Nova do Imigrante, ES, Brazil. The second is with the old honey bee of Northeastem Brazil, Melipona scutellaris the uruçu. The third is Melipona compressipes, of the State of Maranhão. These two last species were the only bees already domesticated in Brazil before 1830, when Apis mellifera was introduced. During the last 15 years good methodology was developed in our Departament to both divide colonies and to produce an adequate type of hive for these bees. It is easy for the beekeepers to understand all the techniques, however, the limiting factors are both education and poverty, that is, they have no biological knowledge nor money to buy hives. A grant from The Bank of Brazil Foundation and CNPq is helping in minimizing these problem for the two former species. Some species of stingless bees (e.g. Scaptotrigona postiça, T. spinipes) are being used for pollination. Two cases of Melipona beekeepers are mentioned that with 120 and 200 colonies of these bees obtain a reasonable

Aspectos biológicos, ecológicos e genéticos da Melipona (Michmelia) capixaba - Moure e Camargo, 1994 (Hymenoptera, Apidae)