I

ANNO 4 Numero 3
Gaetana Mazzeo [1], Alice Seminara [2], Salvatore Bella [2], Giovanna Ferrauto [3], Santi Longo [1]

Observations on wild bee and Apis mellifera activity in a mountain area of the Mount Etna

[1] Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Fitosanitarie – Università degli Studi di Catania, Catania, Italy
[2] PhD - Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Fitosanitarie – Università degli Studi di Catania, Italy
[3] Dipartimento di Botanica – Università degli Studi di Catania, Catania, italy

Corresponding author: gamazzeo@unict.it

The Authors report the results of a survey carried out on Mount Tanaurpi, a high-mountainous environment of the Etna Park, during the years 2005-2006, aiming at studying anthophilous wild bees and the foraging activity of Apis mellifera L.

The survey, carried out between May and October, consisted in listing the botanical species in the area and in recording and collecting bees (Apoidea Anthophila) along a 400 m long representative transect. An apiary was also installed to evaluate the health conditions of the bee colonies and the foraging activity both directly on flowering plants and by analysing the pollen taken from the traps placed at the entry to the beehives.
The observations reported the presence of 30 species of Apoidea (excluding A. mellifera), belonging to the families Colletidae, Andrenidae, Halictidae, Megachilidae, Anthophoridae, Apidae and mainly to the genera Bombus Latr., Lasioglossum Curtis and Halictus Latr.. The number of the species and the consistency of their populations varied in the two years and in particular the values were highest in 2006, when the climatic trend enhanced the flowering of the dominant plants and in particular of Astragalus siculus Biv. Such differences were highlighted also by the calculated values of the Shannon-Weaver diversity index in the two years (3.178 in 2005 and 2.708 in 2006).

The qualitative-quantitative analysis of the pollen allowed to characterize 10 pollen types in 2005 and 6 in 2006, chiefly pertaining to genera found in an area included in a 5 Km radius from the apiary. These data have concurred to delineate the hypothetical foraging area of honeybees in the mountainous environment of the Etna Park, in which 38 botanical species, available for the bees in the summer, were recorded.
The analysis of honey showed that it is characterized by Castanea as dominant pollen type and Astragalus as secondary pollen type.