Pollen spectrum of honey of Apis mellifera L. and stingless bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) from the semi-arid region of Bahia State, Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Santos, Polyana Carneiro dos
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Outros Autores: Nascimento, Andreia Santos do, Sodré, Geni da Silva, Carvalho, Carlos Alfredo Lopes de, Alves, Rogério Marcos de Oliveira, Ferreira, Mariza Alves, Andrade, Brunelle Ramos, Caldas, Maiara Janine Machado, Nunes, Lorena Andrade, Estevinho, Leticia M.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10198/22341
• topic: Beekeeping; Melissopalynology; Melliferous flora; Pollen spectrum

Pollen in honey reflects its botanical origin and melissopalynology is used to identify origin, type, and quantities of pollen grains of the botanical species visited by bees. This study aimed to identify the pollen spectrum of honeys from Apis mellifera and stingless bees produced in the semi-arid region of Bahia, Brazil. We analysed 78 honey samples, which were submitted to the acetolysis process for identification and quantification of pollen types. Fabaceae, Asteraceae and Euphorbiaceae were the most predominant families in pollen types. For Fabaceae, the most representative pollen types were Chamaecrista 1, Mimosa caesalpiniifolia, Mimosa pudica, Mimosa tenuiflora, Prosopis and Senna. The results indicate that the flora explored by the bees to collect nectar is diverse in the semi-arid region of Bahia and the honeys analysed were classified as multifloral.