A melissopalynological analysis of the rare stingless bee diet of Melipona yucatanica from the Yucatán Peninsula

Stingless bees are generally regarded as broad generalist foragers, though species of the genus Melipona often show narrower floral preferences. We examined the diet of Melipona yucatanica, an endangered species from the Yucatán Peninsula, by analysing pollen and honey stores from a natural colony in southern Quintana Roo, Mexico. Four taxa – an unknown Malvaceae Sp1, Bursera simaruba (Burseraceae), Acacia cornigera (Fabaceae), and Thrinax radiata (Arecaceae) – accounted for more than 98% of stored pollen by frequency and volume. While Malvaceae and Thrinax were represented across multiple pots, Bursera strongly dominated a subset of them. One pollen pot contained 91.7% B. simaruba, meeting the > 90% criterion for temporary specialisation. These results reveal a narrow stored-pollen spectrum in the sampled colony, strongly concentrated on a few floral resources, although the unknown filling dates of the pots preclude assigning these patterns to specific flowering periods. These findings highlight the need to better understand the ecological requirements of this poorly studied bee to inform conservation and meliponiculture.