Free Access
| Issue |
Apidologie
Volume 31, Number 5, September-October 2000
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 579 - 592 | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/apido:2000148 | |
DOI: 10.1051/apido:2000148
The bees of the Caatinga (Hymenoptera, Apoidea, Apiformes): a species list and comparative notes
regarding their distribution
Apidologie 31 (2000) 579-592
The bees of the Caatinga (Hymenoptera, Apoidea, Apiformes): a species list and comparative notes
regarding their distribution![[*]](/icons/foot_motif.gif)
Fernando C.V. Zanella
Departamento de Engenharia Florestal, Universidade Federal da Paraíba,
Cx. P. 64. 58700-970 Patos, Paraíba, Brazil
(
Abstract:
A list of bee species recorded in the Caatinga region is presented, including literature
and new data. Caatinga is a xerophilous vegetation characteristic of the semi-arid region
of Northeastern Brazil. The species richness of its bee fauna is comparatively low with
about 187 species and 77 genera (114 species and 45 genera of Apidae, 35 and 9 of
Megachilidae, 18 and 7 of Halictidae, 13 and 9 of Colletidae, and 8 and 7 of Andrenidae).
Some genera, that are well diversified and relatively common in the Cerrado, an adjacent
but more humid biome also characterized by open vegetation, are not recorded or rare in
the Caatinga, e.g. Epicharis, Monoeca, Paratetrapedia and Tetrapedia. By contrast the
genera Diadasina, Melitoma and Leiopodus are relatively well diversified in the Caatinga.
Keywords:
diversity / biogeography / dry region / Brazil / South America
Correspondence and reprints: Fernando C.V. Zanella
e-mail: fzanella@cstr.ufpb.br
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