Estudos ecológicos em açaí preto euterpe oleracea mart. e etnovariedade açaí branco euterpe sp- arecaceae

Abstract

The "black açaí" (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) and the "ethnovarian - white açaí" (Euterpe sp.) are palms that have ecological, economic and food potential in the Amazon estuary. This research aimed to determine the ecological interactions at the level of floral visitor behavior and to evaluate seed germination time. The experiments were conducted on Combu Island, municipality of Acará, Pará State. We observed the behavior of the visiting agents weekly and collected inflorescences in October and November of 1998 and January of 1999, which were transported in plastic bags to the laboratory for later collection and identification of the insects at the order level and, when possible, at the family level. The black açaí seeds were collected from three matrices and the white açaí seeds from one matrices. These were washed and the following treatments were applied: TI (seeds with pulp), T2 (manual scarification) and T3 (mechanical scarification). In each treatment three repetitions with 50 seeds each were used and placed in Styrofoam trays and polyethylene bags with black soil as substrate. It was observed that the visiting insects and their behavior in the inflorescences of black açaí were of the following orders: Coleoptera (possible pollinators), Homoptera (flower predation), Hymenoptera (nectar collection) and Hemiptera (occasional/pollen collector) and in the white açaí: Homoptera, Coleoptera, Hemiptera and Hymenoptera, these with the same behavior in relation to the orders mentioned for the black açaí. In the ecological interaction of visitors, Jardim & Macambira (1996) verified the visit of insects of the same orders. Regarding germination time, Cunha & Jardim (1995) state that scarification minimizes germination time.