Manejo de Centris analis (Fabricius, 1804) (Hymenoptera: Apidae): investigando as dimensões ideais de ninhos-armadilha para uso na polinização de culturas

Abstract

Many crops have a great dependence on pollinators. The presence of these animals, mostly bees, ensure the fruit set and promote the increase of the productivity. In Brazil, pollination programs of cultures are still incipient, with paucity of basic biological information that allows to implementation of such actions. Most of the commercial pollination is perfomed by social bees, mainly Apis mellifera, but the solitary bees have a great potencial of to pollinate many crops in the country. Among these bees, Centris analis is a species that would be a good candidate for pollination programs as a since it is a cavity-nesting, multivoltine species with broad geographic range and nesting in preexisting cavities. Data on this species biology is already well known, but there is still a lack of basic information to optimize rational rearing. Thefore, the aim of this study was to test the influence of the different diameters and lengths of trap-nests on in some biological aspects of C. analis. Our data suggests that females preferred the longer nests, and the diameter and length did not affect the mortality rates, parasitism rates, and sex ratio. From these results, we suggest cavity measures that would improve the rearing techniques and allow the conservation of C. analis populations.