Biometry and productivity of Melipona scutelaris bees: a multivariate approach

Abstract

The objective of this research is to reduce the dimensionality of the set of original variables related to honey production and biometric measurements of stingless bees, eliminating redundant variables and recommending possible variables that should be maintained in future studies. Four collections were performed at 30-day intervals, consisting of the evaluation of each colony, considering the following parameters: honey pot size and volume (HPS and HPV), estimated honey production (EHP), number of combs (NC), average diameter of the combs (DC), comb height (CH), height of brood cells (HBC), number of brood (NB) population (POP) and beeswax brood capping(BBC). Of the 11 principal components generated, the first two were selected because they presented cumulative variation of 80%. The characteristics with the greatest weighting coefficients, in absolute value, in the first component were EHP (0.91), honey pot number (0.80) and HPS (0.78), characterizing CP1 as an index for determining the production of honey. In the second component, the NB and POP had the same weighting coefficient (0.95), which allows us to indicate CP2 as a biometric profile. The variables EHP, HPV, HPS, NB and POP were the most important among the two components selected and should be considered in future studies with Melipona scutellaris.