Range expansion of the Cleptoparasitic Orchid Bee Aglae caerulea in the Pantanal of Mato Grosso, Brazil

Abstract

Several authors have suggested that gallery forests play an essential role as mesic corridors, opening the way to the colonization of the Cerrado by forest-dependent species with ranges centered in the neighboring Amazon and Atlantic forests. One such species is the cleptoparasitic Aglae caerulea Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau & Audinet-Serville, which has had its geographical distribution expanded by various records made in gallery forests in areas of that biome. We report here the occurrence of A. caerulea in a gallery forest located in Santo Antônio do Leverger municipality, in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Eleven males were collected in the Pantanal of Barão de Melgaço, in Mato Grosso, Brazil. The results presented reinforce the need for further research to understanding better the distributional range limits of A. caerulea in southern South America, now that the species has been recorded for the first time almost 30 km from the flooded plains of the Pantanal.