SOUSA, Tulio Alberto De Oliveira.
Resumo:
Pollination of plants by insects, mainly bees, contributed to the evolution of both groups concomitantly. In some plants, minor components of nectar or pollen can be toxic or repellent to their pollinators. In this sense, this work sought information on the longevity behavior of Africanized bees in comparison to the addition of the maceration of flowers of Datura stramonium L. Var. Tatula (L.) Torr diet known as "Cândi" at concentrations of: 0.25%, 0.50% and 1.0%. For that, bioassays were performed at the Entomology Laboratory of the Federal University of Campina Grande, Pombal Campus. It used dry and crushed Aspidosperma pyrifollium flowers. The powder of the flowers was weighed into three different fractions (0.25%, 0.50% and 1.0%) and added to the candi and water. The newly emerged workers were distributed in a set of 20 insects per wooden box measuring 11 cm in length by 11 in width and 7 cm in height in three replicates and the control, comprising 12 boxes and 240 worker bees, were conditioned in BO D with temperature set at 32 ° C and humidity of 70%. The control group received only the candi and water. Considering the results obtained with the research, it can be observed that the control bees remained alive until the 23 days reaching a statistical average of 21 days and for those treated with 0.25%, 0.50% and 1.0% respectively presented mortality at 09, 08 and 07 days. The data analysis showed statistically significant differences between the treatments and the control, suggesting toxic effect of macerate obtained from flowers of Datura stramonium L. Var. tatula (L.) Torr. for female beekeepers Apis mellifera.