Original article Determination of minimum quantity of pollen and nutritive value of different carbohydrates forscaptotrigona depilis Moure (Hymenoptera, Apidae) PG Fernandes-da-Silva G Muccillo FS Zucoloto 1 Biology Department, Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Arts of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Av dos Bandeirantes 3900 CEP 14040-901, Ribeirão Preto SP; 2 Department of Geology, Physics and Mathematics, Faculty of Philososphy, Sciences and Arts of Ribeirao Preto, University of São Paulo, SP, Brazil (Received 28 February 1992; accepted 12 November 1992) Summary — Two experiments were performed to determine some aspects of nutrition in Scaptotri- gona depilis. This minimum quantity of pollen necessary for suitable development of hypopharyngeal gland and oocytes was determined to be ≈ 8.0 mg/bee/d. With respect to carbohydrates, no differ- ences in longevity were found between groups fed sucrose (w/v) at 10, 30 or 50%. With different car- bohydrates (glucose, fructose, sucrose and maltose) no differences were detected between groups fed all carbohydrates at 1 %; groups fed sucrose, maltose and glucose were similar to groups fed su- crose; the sucrose group was similar to the maltose and glucose groups; the maltose and glucose groups were similar. For all carbohydrates, 10% concentration showed superior results to 1% con- centration. Scaptotrigona depilis / pollen / carbohydrate / nutrition / Meliponinae INTRODUCTION In the Hymenoptera, only bees collect both nectar and pollen from flowers (Mi- chener, 1974; Waddington, 1987). Other alternative food sources for bees are hon- eydew (Vogel, 1931; Taber et al, 1975; Kevan et al, 1983) and, in some cases, food is obtained by a certain degree of cannibalism (Webster et al, 1987). In the winter or when few flowers are blooming, bee colonies experience diffi- culty in obtained food, with a consequent limitation of colony activities. To avoid problems of this type, beekeepers usually supply pollen substitutes (Schmidt et al, 1989) and sucrose solutions (Taber, 1989) during periods of food scarcity. Some investigators have made at- tempts to obtain a good substitute diet for Meliponines. Camargo (1976) used pollen of Typha dominguensis as the main substitute for the pollen normally used by Melipona and Scaptotrigona. In another * Correspondence and reprints