Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Journal of Insect Conservation https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-018-0090-8 ORIGINAL PAPER Challenges to the conservation of stingless bees in Atlantic Forest patches: old approaches, new applications Mariana Victorino Nicolosi Arena 1  · Fábio Camacho Destéfani 2  · Tiago Nunes da Silva 2  · Júlio César da Silva Mascotti 2  · Elaine Cristina Mathias da Silva‑Zacarin 3,5  · Rogério Hartung Toppa 1,4,5 Received: 8 May 2018 / Accepted: 12 September 2018 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018 Abstract Fragmentation is one of the many threats that leads to the decline in the population of bees, and stingless bees compose the most abundant pollinator group in the neotropical rain forests. Considering the importance of forested areas to the presence of bees that forage above the ground and nest in trees, this study aimed to discuss the efectiveness of artifcial bee shelters as a strategy for the conservation of stingless bees in fragmented habitats. Artifcial bee shelters (n = 72) were installed in Atlantic Forest patches and were monitored for 8 months. Four (5.5%) artifcial shelters were successfully colonized by Scaptotrigona postica (Latreille, 1807) and 23 (32%) shelters contained signs of initial colonization or traces of dead sting- less bees. Difculties faced by the bees in colonizing the artifcial bee shelters included water accumulation, predation, and occupation by other species. The occurrence of Scaptotrigona bees may be related to the group’s need to nest in the hollows of living trees. The artifcial shelters supported the swarming of Scaptotrigona bees by providing nesting sites that assisted in their self-maintenance in highly fragmented forest patches with scarce adequate nesting sites. The use of artifcial bee shelters can be a strategy for studying stingless bees in their natural environment and for evaluating conservation strategies. Keywords Trap-nests · Meliponini · Scaptotrigona · Artifcial bee shelters · Fragmentation · Bee’s swarming Introduction Fragmentation and habitat loss represent the main threats to the conservation of species in their natural habitats, as frag- mentation reduces the total area covered by a natural habitat (Murcia 1995). In Brazil, the Atlantic Forest is composed of 245,173 forest patches, of which 83.4% (204,469 patches) are smaller than 50 hectares (ha) and 97% are smaller than 250 ha (Ribeiro et al. 2009). In this context, small forest patches are particularly important in increasing landscape connectivity, considering that the average distance between forest patches is almost 1.5 km. Also, forest patches smaller than 200 ha increase Atlantic Forest connectivity to more than 8,000 m (Ribeiro et al. 2009). Fragmentation is one of the many threats to the decline in bee populations (Winfree 2010; Goulson 2015; Roberts et al. 2017) that can result in a failure of the pollination services in the ecosystem (Potts et al. 2010), as bees represent the most important pollinator group of fowering plants (Bawa 1990). In this context, studies demonstrate that a higher diversity of wild bee species can be found in the interior of the rainfor- est, and an increase in the forest’s edge would have negative Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-018-0090-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Elaine Cristina Mathias da Silva-Zacarin elaine@ufscar.br * Rogério Hartung Toppa toppa@ufscar.br 1 Programa de Pós-Graduação em Sustentabilidade na Gestão Ambiental, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Sorocaba, SP, Brazil 2 Bacharelado em Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Sorocaba, SP, Brazil 3 Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Sorocaba, SP, Brazil 4 Departamento de Ciências Ambientais, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Sorocaba, SP, Brazil 5 Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Rodovia João Leme dos Santos (SP-264), Km 110, s/n-Itinga, CEP 18052-780 Sorocaba, SP, Brazil