BRAZILIAN BEE SURVEYS: STATE OF KNOWLEDGE, CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE USE

Abstract

The understanding of bee communities and their association with particular habitats can prove to be a very useful tool in identifying the vulnerability of these organisms to landscape changes and is also fundamental to assess the potential of bees for sustainable use in agriculture. Data on bee communities have been collected in Brazil for more than thirty years and are mainly bee species lists, information on bee abundance, seasonal and daily activity, and lists of mellitophilous plants. A local picture of community composition and structure can be drawn although proper species identification impedes a detailed analysis and limits comparisons among areas. Our intention here is to present overviews of the information on native bees gathered from surveys on bee communities and discuss the implications of the status of current knowledge to native bees conservation and its potential sustainable use.