"Ferramentas auxiliares na identificação de espécies de abelhas Meliponini, com ênfase no gênero Schwarziana (Lepeletier, 1836)"

SILVA, R. A. O. Auxiliar tools for Meliponini bees’ identification, emphasizing the genus Schwarziana. 76p. Master Thesis Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, 2010. Stingless bees are among the most important animals to the environmental balance, that due to their diversity and mainly because they are important pollinators of both natural and agroecosystems. The need for identification of sampled animals by experts is essential for ecological studies. In this work, intra and interspecific population analysis was performed in order to improve the technique of geometric morphometry, which allows us to access this biodiversity through identifications based on patterns of wing venation of these insects. We also sequenced two mitochondrial genes, the COI and 16S. Schwarziana Lepeletier 1836 was the gender studied with two valid species, S. quadripunctata and S. mourei. In morphometric analysis, crossvalidation tests carried out by individuals correctly identified 70% of samples from a total of 10 different locations. This accuracy increases further as new groups are formed, according to geographic proximity, reaching around 85% when separated by regions. In all tests with geometric morphometry (partial warps and aligned coordinates) reached a rate of 100% correct identification between the two species and the tests made with the averages of the colonies that rate achieved the perfect identification of all populations sampled. Partial warps tests were more effective in relation to aligned coordinates ones, as these last a minimum tolerance for the separation of the groups was not achieved in some tests. Molecular analysis showed 53 polymorphic sites for the COI gene, with nucleotide diversity of 0.02180 and haplotype diversity of 0.8854, separating the samples into 9 haplotypes, but their network of haplotypes was not sufficiently conclusive. The total genetic differentiation measured by Fst parameter only for the populations of S. quadripunctata was 0.9453 (P <0.05). As for the gene 16S, we found 14 polymorphic sites and a nucleotide diversity of 0.00649 and haplotype diversity of 0.8419, with seven haplotypes generated. The parameter Fst for all samples was 0.9552 (P <0.05) and only for S.quadripunctata was 0.8736 (P <0.05). For both genes Fst pairwise tests showed greater variation among populations of the states, showing these groups as a genetic structure. Mantel tests were positively correlated for morphometric, geographical and molecular data. Of the two methodologies in our research, we can affirm that the morphometry proved to be extremely efficient in the differentiation of populations. Molecular analysis showed that populations are consistent, even that a low sample size is available. However combining these two methodologies, we have joined the simplicity and speed of geometric morphometric with the always innovative ability of molecular studies, thus achieving effective tools for accessing biodiversity in Meliponini, including a geographically trace for specimens by studying individuals from their natural range.