Karyotype description of Cephalotrigona femorata Smith (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and the C-banding pattern as a specific marker for Cephalotrigona

Abstract

Cephalotrigona femorata (Smith, 1854) was submitted to cytogenetic techniques to study and describe its karyotype. Conventional staining allowed the counting (2n=34) and observation of chromosome morphology. The amount and distribution of heterochromatin in this species was different from Cephalotrigona capitata (Smith, 1854), another species of the genus already analyzed. Our results indicate that heterochromatin a potential marker for the genus, at least for the species found in Brazil. This region was marked by DAPI, revealing a high content of A:T. The CMA3 marked two pairs, and it seems to be polymorphic in one pair.

Keywords

• Hymenoptera, stingless bees
• cytogenetics
• heterochromatin