Uso da fotografia macro e close-up como ferramenta na catalogação de visitantes florais de Ocimum sp.

Abstract

Pollination biology is an area where the class Insecta (Arthropoda) represents one of the most important taxa, because many of them are floral visitors and pollinators. This study is essential to differentiate pollinators from plunderers and robbers and to formulate conservation strategies. The genus Ocimum L. (Lamiaceae) comprizes a large number of floral visitors, making it difficult to really understand their ecological actions. In this case, macro and close-up photography could work as a tool to reveal what occurs during plant-insect interactions. This work aims to carry out a survey of floral visitors in Ocimum using macro photography as a tool to prove their interactions. Direct observations were made in a taxocenosis of Ocimum sp. located on the Agronomy Campus of UNITAU, with collection of photographic records, observing plant-insect interaction, the resource collected, and frequency of flower visitation. Results indicated that the orders Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Hemiptera, Coleoptera and Diptera were classified as floral visitors. The three behaviors were recorded, being pollination the most frequent, attributed to the bees Apis mellifera L. By using the photography, pollen grains were observed in A. mellifera, and their contact with the floral reproductive structures. We also observed a different pattern for Lepidoptera, Hemiptera and Coleoptera where the photographs registered the distance between insect body and the floral reproductive structures.  Macro and close-up photographs bring new information about pollination behavior and have didactic and scientific potential.