Breno Magalhães Freitas

Universidade Federal do Ceará | UFC · Departamento de Zootecnia

This is the first report showing that using honeybee (Apis mellifera) and wild pollinators complementary pollination can enhance soybean productivity (Glycine max). Current industrial production of soybean involves autopollination and high loads of pesticides. Therefore, growers have neglected possible biotic pollination despite suggestions that so...

Ecological intensification, or the improvement of crop yield through enhancement of biodiversity, may be a sustainable pathway toward greater food supplies. Such sustainable increases may be especially important for the 2 billion people reliant on small farms, many of which are undernourished, yet we know little about the efficacy of this approach....

In this study, we investigated for the first time the concomitant effect of climate changes on a tropical crop, passion fruit (Passiflora edulis), and its two main pollinator bee species (Xylocopa frontalis and X. grisescens)in the Neotropics considering two of the IPCC environmental scenarios, RCP 4.5; RCP 8.5 (Representative Concentration Pathway...

Farmers, gardeners and agronomists have detailed knowledge on how to maximise high quality crop production, especially in the context of external inputs including fertilization and pest management. However, detailed information on pollination is mainly available in the international scientific literature and often not accessible for local farmers o...

There is evidence that climate change may worsen the ecological conditions needed by many pollinator species for their survival; however, little is known about how the rise in ambient temperature might affect the survival of large bee species in tropical regions of the planet. This study investigated the thermoregulation mechanisms of the large car...

The bee Epanthidium tigrinum is native to Brazil and shows potential for use in pollinating agricultural crops. However, the little information available concerning its reproductive and feeding habits has prevented any rational breeding or management of these bees. The aim of this study was to investigate their acceptance of trap nests, and their n...

Melon is a pollinator-dependent crop that relies mainly on bees to set fruits. However, man-selected varieties vary in their attractiveness to flower visitors, and some flower genders and melon types may be less visited than others, harming pollination. We investigated the nectar composition of male, female and hermaphrodite flowers of 270 individu...

1. To sample bee communities, a combination of methods is necessary, the most common being hand netting (HN) and pan traps (PT). However, there has been little exploration into how vertical distribution of PT can improve their sampling efficiency, also taking the temporal variation of floral resources into account. 2. Here, we analysed the propert...

Encounters between flowers and invertebrates are key events for the functioning of tropical forests. Assessing the structure of networks composed by the interactions between those partners enables a better understanding of ecosystem functioning and the effects of environmental factors over ecological processes. Gathering such data is, however, cost...

One of the limitations to greater expansion of Meliponiculture and conservation efforts of most stingless bee species is related to the low reproductive rate of colonies, both in the wild and in meliponaries. However, in Melipona, colonies regularly produce an excessive number of virgin queens which are eliminated by the workers. Here, we investiga...

Bombus brevivillus Franklin is a Neotropical Bombus species whose colonies are disappearing from most of its native range, and little is known about its biology and reproductive habits to help conservation or breeding efforts. Unlike Bombus species from temperate climates whose colonies perish every winter, there are suggestions of perennial coloni...

Background: Animal pollination is an important ecosystem function and service, ensuring both the integrity of natural systems and human well-being. Although many knowledge shortfalls remain, some high-quality data sets on biological interactions are now available. The development and adoption of standards for biodiversity data and metadata has pro...

Seventy five percent of the world's food crops benefit from insect pollination. Hence, there has been increased interest in how global change drivers impact this critical ecosystem service. Because standardized data on crop pollination are rarely available, we are limited in our capacity to understand the variation in pollination benefits to crop y...

Phenological events, in particular, flowering phenology and aspects of floral biology help to understand the relationship of plants with their pollinators. Thus, this study sought to estimate, under semi-arid conditions, the relationship between different genotypes of pumpkin or winter squash (Cucurbita moschata Duch.) and the environment, under th...

Bees are the main pollinators of most cultivated and wild plant species. Unfortunately, due to the pesticide use, habitat loss, and climate change, they are declining worldwide. A machine learning model to anticipate temperature drops in honeybee colonies. The long short-term memory (LSTM) algorithm was applied to five real datasets with the follow...

Invasive species can reach high abundances and dominate native environments. One of the most impressive examples of ecological invasions is the spread of the African sub‐species of the honey bee throughout the Americas, starting from its introduction in a single locality in Brazil. The invasive honey bee is expected to more negatively impact bee co...

Meliponines, popularly known as stingless bees, present a great diversity of species widely distributed in tropical regions. Some species are rationally reared to obtain bee products like honey, pollen and wax, and most of them are important pollinators of the native and cultivated fl ora in Brazil. Nevertheless, stingless bees are little investiga...

O Distúrbio do Colapso das Colônias (Colony Collapse Disorder, CCD) é um fenômeno associado ao desaparecimento repentino de abelhas melíferas em colônias manejadas. Registrado nos EUA desde 2006, o CCD tem como possíveis causas desde as variações climáticas, uso incorreto de defensivos químicos até pragas e doenças. Neste sentido, soluções computac...

The genus Scaura Schwarz is characterized by having specimens with metabasitarsus as inflated as the metatibia and malar space shorter than the diameter of the flagellum. Some of its species need both termitaria and preexisting cavities for nesting, in addition, this genus has specimens that build the brood cells in the form of horizontal discs (S....

While an increasing number of studies indicate that the range, diversity and abundance of many wild pollinators has declined, the global area of pollinator-dependent crops has significantly increased over the last few decades. Crop pollination studies to date have mainly focused on either identifying different guilds pollinating various crops, or o...

While an increasing number of studies indicate that the range, diversity and abundance of many wild pollinators has declined, the global area of pollinator-dependent crops has significantly increased over the last few decades. Crop pollination studies to date have mainly focused on either identifying different guilds pollinating various crops, or o...

Urban areas can serve as biodiversity refuges for pollinators because of the high diversity of available floral and nesting resources. However, it remains unclear what plant species commonly used for urban landscaping provide floral resources that pollinators actively use. Here, we integrate data from the pollen and species distribution models of t...

The distribution of floral resources in time and space varies according to vegetation strata and to the influence of precipitation and photoperiod on flowering patterns. There are scarce studies jointly investigating the spatio-temporal distribution of plant resources for bees and at the community level, which are critical for planning strategies f...

Bees are prolific pollinators and are responsible for the pollination of most wild and cultivated plants. This study aimed to learn about the flight activity of the stingless bee Plebeia aff. flavocincta in tropical conditions as a parameter to evaluate the general state of the colonies, and to investigate the role of food resources and environment...

A distinctive new species of the Neotropical stingless bee genus Paratrigona Schwarz from northeastern Brazil, previously considered as a variation within P. lineata by Camargo and Moure (1994), is described and illustrated. Paratrigona intermedia Oliveira, Madella-Auricchio & Freitas sp. nov. belongs to the lineata group. It is easily distinguishe...

To better understand the relationship between Spondias mombin (Anacardiaceae) with its floral visitors, we investigated stigma receptivity and flowering pattern, as well as the abundance, frequency and behavior of bees visiting its flowers, aiming to discuss their potential as pollinator of this plant species. We studied S. mombin in an orchard in...

In hot climates, foraging bees risk overheating during food collection. Here, we investigated influence of ambient temperature on the foraging activity in Melipona subnitida, a stingless bee species that naturally occurs in the hottest and driest regions of the Brazilian tropical dry forest. We observed a decrease in round-trip duration of pollen f...

This study tested three types of Solid-Phase Microextraction fibers in developing a method to extract volatile organic compounds present in the diet of immature Centris analis. Samples were placed in glass vials with metal lids and added with 3g NaCl and 8 ml deionized water. Extraction and characterization were carried out using a Headspace – Soli...

Large-scale commercial production of pitaya is recent and there is little information on pollination and fruiting in this crop. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to investigate if the Africanized honeybee (Apis mellifera), frequent visitor of pitaya flowers (Hylocereus undatus and H. polyrhizus), plays any relevant role in the polli...

Losses caused by the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari) have been decreasing coffee production. This pest causes annual losses over U.S. $500 million. The chemical insecticides have been used to Coffee berry borer control. Due to their effects of pesticides on human and environmental health, some countries decided to ban the use of e...

Honey bees, important pollinators, are threatened by a variety of pests, pathogens and extreme climatic events, such as the winter period. This paper proposes a two-stages model that seeks to define and predict evolutionary scenarios for improving the bee colonies’ well-being. The used dataset has data from both internal and external beehive sensor...

One of the ways to reduce inappropriate management of hives and monitor bee health is to send notifications/alerts about the data collected through sensors. This study presents BeeNotified!, a solution for sending notifications through Telegram, e-mail, and SMS. The notifications warn about the level of temperature, humidity, sound, carbon dioxide,...

Bees are the main pollinators of most wild plant species and insect-pollinated crops and are essential for both plant ecosystems maintenance and humans food production. Among the crops used for human feeding, 75% depend on pollination. In addition to the fact that uncertainty around the beekeeping activity could jeopardize the economic value of pol...

About 85% of pollinating bees are solitary, but few are used for agricultural pollination. The Anthidiini tribe looks very promising in Brazil, in the light of ecosystem utility, but it is still a scientificaly poorly researched species. In order to fill this gap, studies on the bionomics of these species may collaborate on future efforts for the u...

The recent decline in population of generalist bees such as those of the genera Apis and Bombus has shown the need to breed and manage a larger number of bee species. Among the species with potential use for agricultural pollination in the Neotropics, a peculiar small group has specialised in collecting floral oil. Therefore, the aim of this study...

The book “Atlas of pollen and plants used by bees” was prepared with great care with the data of researchers from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and Colombia, who are collaborators of RCPol - Online Pollen Catalogs Network. RCPol was conducted during the development of the project entitled “Study of bee flora and pollen grains for the insertion of data...

Fazendeiros, agricultores e agrônomos têm conhecimentos detalhados de como maximizar a produção e qualidade de seus cultivos agrícolas, especialmente no contexto de insumos externos como os fertilizantes e o manejo de pragas. Contudo, informações sobre polinização geralmente estão disponíveis apenas na literatura científica internacional e quase s...

The study investigated native solitary bee species that nest in pre-existing cavities in the Baturité Massif, State of Ceará, Brazil, their preference for nest substrates and aspects of these bee communities. Samples were taken in four distinct areas of the Baturité Massif using three types of trap-nests: dried bamboo internodes, cardboard tubes an...

This study investigated the occurrence of individuals of stingless bees attracted by the trophic resources existing in four edge areas of forest fragments located in the Baturité Massif, State of Ceará. In this sense, the study evaluated the species richness in the areas; the absolute abundance of species; the similarity of species between edges; a...

The present work aimed to study floral biology, pollination requirements and the behavior of floral visitors in two species of pitaya, Hylocereus undatus and H. polyrhizus, in Northeastern Brazil. The experiment was carried out through diurnal and nocturnal observations and the use of flowers bagged or accessible to visitors. Results showed that fl...

As abelhas são essenciais à produção de alimentos para o ser humano e para manutenção dos ecossistemas. Esse artigo apresenta uma solução para calcular os níveis de estados de saúde de colônias de abelhas usando dados de sensores internos e externos à colônia e de inspeções in loco realizadas por apicultores. A clusterização foi usada para determin...

Human land use threatens global biodiversity and compromises multiple ecosystem functions critical to food production. Whether crop yield–related ecosystem services can be maintained by a few dominant species or rely on high richness remains unclear. Using a global database from 89 studies (with 1475 locations), we partition the relative importance...

Human land use threatens global biodiversity and compromises multiple ecosystem functions critical to food production. Whether crop yield–related ecosystem services can be maintained by a few dominant species or rely on high richness remains unclear. Using a global database from 89 studies (with 1475 locations), we partition the relative importance...

The aim of the study was to investigate the flight range and foraging behavior of the stingless bee Plebeia aff. flavocincta, as well as testing its attraction to different sugar syrup concentrations within different distances to the colony. Foraging pattern along the day, preference of bees for sugar concentration in nectar and their relationship...

Pollination is a key factor in global agricultural production, and there is a need to increase the number of bee species that can be bred for pollination in agriculture, such as the oil-collecting solitary bee Centris (Heterocentris) analis (Fabricius, 1804). In this study, the nesting and reproductive behavior of the bee were studied under tropica...

The study investigated the occupation and emergence of bees that nest in trap-nests and assessed aspects of the structure of such nests, sex ratio, parasitism and mortality of bees in four areas of Baturité Massif, State of Ceará. Samples were taken using three types of trap-nests: dried bamboo internodes, cardboard tubes and rational boxes. In the...

The flora of mountain formations in the Caatinga biome is composed predominantly by semi-deciduous species with representatives of both Atlantic and Amazon forest. Information on the potential for bee pollen production of these species is limited. In this study we evaluated the potential of production, the temporal variation, the botanical origin a...

Bees are the main pollinators of most wild and cultivated plant species, thus being essential for the maintenance of plant ecosystems and for food production. But they are threatened due to a series of drivers such as pesticides, habitat loss and climate change. Here, we propose a method to identify the loss of thermoregulation capacity in honeybee...

Bees are the main pollinators of most wild plant species and are essential for the maintenance of plant ecosystems and for food production. However, in recent years they are suffering from deforestation and pesticides. Here, we propose a method to identify the health status of Apis mellifera colonies. We trained, validated and tested 4 classificati...

Habitat degradation and climate change are currently threatening wild pollinators, compromising their ability to provide pollination services to wild and cultivated plants. Landscape genomics offers powerful tools to assess the influence of landscape modifications on genetic diversity and functional connectivity, and identify adaptations to local e...

Euglossa Latreille, 1802 do not live in large colonies, and these are usually maintained or “reactivated” by new females, subordinate to their mother, which construct and provision brood cells. This study aimed to obtain information about the natural history of Euglossa cordata (Linnaeus, 1758) specially focusing on nest behavior. Our specific obje...

The study aimed to describe bionomic aspects of Tetrapedia diversipes Klug, 1810 in order to allow the conservation or breeding of these bees. The nesting biology was studied using trap nests made with cardboard-paper tubes and plastic straws during the period between December 2014 and September 2015, in the Bee Unit of the Federal University of Ce...

The data in this article are associated with the research article ‘Agricultural area losses and pollinator mismatch due to climate changes endanger passion fruit production in the Neotropics’ (A.D. Bezerra et al. 2019). The data consists of the occurrence points, AUC scores models, presence and absence and co-occurrence maps of the passion fruit (...

Human land use threatens global biodiversity and compromises multiple ecosystem functions critical to food production. Whether crop yield-related ecosystem services can be maintained by few abundant species or rely on high richness remains unclear. Using a global database from 89 crop systems, we partition the relative importance of abundance and s...

Pollination is essential for food production in the world, but in pollinator-dependent crops it relies on the attraction of pollinators to flowers. However, crop varieties vary in their attractiveness to flower visitors and volatile compounds emitted by flowers may play a significant role in attracting or repelling pollinators. Here, we investigate...

Body size is an integral functional trait that underlies pollination‐related ecological processes, yet it is often impractical to measure directly. Allometric scaling laws have been used to overcome this problem. However, most existing models rely upon small sample sizes, geographically restricted sampling and have limited applicability for non‐bee...

Although the importance of bees as the pollinators responsible for maintaining gene flow for many native and cultivated plants in ecosystems around the world is recognized, much of their biodiversity and behavior remains to be discovered. Stingless bees are considered key pollinators for several plant species in tropical and subtropical ecosystems...