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Bee Populations, Forest Disturbance, and Africanization in Mexico 1
Author(s) -
Cairns Christine E.,
VillanuevaGutiérrez Rogel,
Koptur Suzanne,
Bray David B.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
biotropica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.813
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1744-7429
pISSN - 0006-3606
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7429.2005.00087.x
Subject(s) - ecology , disturbance (geology) , species richness , dominance (genetics) , pollinator , stingless bee , biology , ecosystem , biodiversity , geography , pollination , apidae , hymenoptera , pollen , paleontology , biochemistry , gene
This study documents the stingless bees' (Meliponinae) recent displacement in the Yucatan (Quintana Roo, Mexico) and the effects of human‐induced ecosystem disturbance on bee diversity. Point observations of flower‐visiting bees were made along transects in three communities with different degrees of human‐induced ecosystem disturbance. The community with the greatest anthropogenic disturbance had lower overall species richness of stingless bees and the highest degree of dominance of the Africanized honeybee ( Apis mellifera scutellata ), while the area with the most intact ecosystem had the highest diversity of stingless bees, though A. mellifera was still the dominant species. We observed aggressive competitive behavior involving physical attacks by A. mellifera against stingless bees, indicating that Africanized honeybees are adopting new behaviors to compete better with dominant native pollinator species.