Invasion and Spreading of Drosophila nasuta (Diptera, Drosophilidae) in the Caatinga Biome, Brazil.

Biological invasions are one of the main causes of biodiversity loss, and it is essential to understand the pattern and rate of expansion of invasive species outside their native distribution. In this study, we documented the invasion of the Asian fruit fly, Drosophila nasuta Lamb, in the Caatinga, and measured its geographical distribution in this environment, which covers 11% of the Brazilian territory. We collected drosophilids in eight sites distributed in the north of the Caatinga (in the state of Ceará), in the south (in Bahia), in the east (in Pernambuco), and in the west (in Piauí), as well as in sites in the central area of the biome.

Influence of Urban Landscape on Ants and Spiders Richness and Composition in Forests.

As large amounts of natural environments are lost due to urbanization, the role of remnant native vegetation in the preservation of biodiversity has become even more significant. Remnant native forest patches are essential refugia for flora and fauna and are crucial for the maintenance of ecosystem processes in urbanized landscapes. We evaluated the influence of landscape structure on ants and spiders associated with Atlantic Forest remnants in urban landscapes.

Body Size and Its Relation to the Foraging Schedules of Social Wasps.

The foraging behavior of social wasps may vary throughout the day in response to different factors, including environmental variation and interspecific interactions. Body size is known to play a critical role in determining daily activity patterns in ecological communities. However, the body size characteristics of most species of social wasps is poorly known, as well the relationship between body size and foraging schedules.

Niche Overlap and Network Specialization of Flower-Visiting Bees in an Agricultural System.

Different resource use strategies manifest as differences in the realized niches of species. Niche segregation may involve several dimensions of the niche, such as diet, space, and time. We measured the level of redundancy and complementarity of a bee-plant interaction network in an agricultural system.

Density and Distribution of Xylocopa Nests (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in Caatinga Areas in the Surroundings of Passion Fruit Crops.

Due to their importance as pollinators of many plant species, this study aimed to know the nest density, spatial distribution, and nesting substrates used by Xylocopa species in the Caatinga, a xerophilous vegetation of Northeastern Brazil. Three areas of Caatinga in the surroundings of passion fruit crops were sampled. The bee species found in these areas were Xylocopa grisescens Lepeletier and Xylocopa frontalis (Olivier).

Resource Utilization and Temporal Segregation of Scarabaeinae (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae) Community in a Caatinga Fragment.

We characterized dung beetles food preference and diel activity and examined the way such characteristics may structure a Scarabaeinae community in a dry forest. We sampled a fragment of Arboreal Caatinga in Milagres, Bahia, Brazil, during the dry and wet seasons, using baited pitfall (bovine spleen, human feces, cow dung, and rotten banana). Species were classified by activity (nocturnal and diurnal) and food preference (coprophagous, necrophagous, saprophagous, copro-necrophagous, and generalist).

Xylocopa bees in tropical coastal sand dunes: use of resources and their floral syndromes.

Large bees such as species from Xylocopa Latreille are usually associated with pollination in tropical sand dune areas, which frequently present shrubby herbaceous vegetation adapted to conditions of high salinity, high solar radiation and strong winds. We report on the diversity of Xylocopa and the plants they visited to collect nectar and pollen, focusing on the floral syndromes they present in these plants and on the breadth of the trophic niche in a tropical sand dune fragment over the year. The field work was carried out monthly in Baixio (Bahia, Brazil; Northern Coast Environmental Protection Area) from April 2008 to March 2009, over two consecutive days, from 06:30 AM to 05:00 PM.

[Pollen analysis of the post-emergence residue of Centris tarsata Smith (Hymenoptera: Apidae, Centridini) nests].

A new treatment protocol was developed to analyze pollen residues found in nests of Centris tarsata Smith harvested from nest-traps. The study area was located in the Canudos Biological Station in the municipality of Canudos (09 masculine56'34'S; 38 masculine59'17'W), in the northeastern micro-region of Bahia State, Brazil. The local vegetation is an open caatinga (deciduous dryland vegetation), the regional climate is semi-arid, the average annual temperature is 24.

[Floral resource partitioning by social wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) and bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) in an area of caatinga in Brazil].

Wasps and bees are important components of flower visitor guilds in the Neotropical region. The abundance of social wasps and bees, collected during flower visits, was used to calculate niche breadth and niche overlap indices, in order to characterize the utilization of the floral resources by those insects. Samples were taken monthly, for 13 months (156h), by two collectors which captured the specimens on flowers using entomological nets, while walking along a way in an area of caatinga at Itatim, State of Bahia, Brazil.

First record and description of a new species of Sycorax Curtis (Diptera: Psychodidae, Sycoracinae) from the Brazilian Amazon.

Sycorax longispinosa sp. nov. is described from Serra do Cachorro, Pará State, Brazil.

Diversity and community structure of social wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in three ecosystems in Itaparica island, Bahia State, Brazil.

We studied the structure and composition of communities of social wasps associated with the three insular ecosystems: mangrove swamp, the Atlantic Rain Forest and the 'restinga'- lowland sandy ecosystems located between the mountain range and the sea. Three hundred and ninety-one nests of 21 social wasp species were collected. The diversity of wasps found in each ecosystem was significantly correlated to the diversity of vegetation in each of the three physiognomies, (r(2) = 0.

[The pollination of Krameria bahiana B.B. Simpson by bees in the Coastal Sand Plains of Bahia, Brazil].

The flowers of K. bahiana mainly produce oil as floral resource for their visitors. Oil collecting bees usually show morphological and behavioral adaptation for their collection.