Body Size Influences Stingless Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Communities Across a Range of Deforestation Levels in Rondonia, Brazil.

ABSTRACT: Developments in understanding bee responses to habitat loss indicate that body size is a trait with important consequences for conservation. Stingless bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponini) are a diverse group of eusocial bees providing pollination services in tropical landscapes, exhibiting a large range in body size across species. We tested the effects of deforestation on the body sizes of stingless bee communities by using museum specimens and revisiting a previous effort that sampled stingless bee communities across varying levels of deforestation at 183 sites in Rondônia, Brazil, in 1996-1997. Body size measurements (intertegular distance) from 72 species collected were included as dependent variables in response to forest area, forest edge, and connectivity of forest patches at seve

SUBMITTER: Mayes DM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6474196 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature