Description of the cell provisioning and oviposition process of seven species of Plebeia Schwarz (Apidae, Meliponini), with notes on their phylogeny and taxonomy

The food Provisioning and Oviposition Process (POP) is described for seven species of Plebeia Schwarz. The data set obtained for these seven species was compared to the information available in the literature for other Plebeia. A cladistic analysis was then applied. Twenty characters of brood area morphology and POP sequences were selected and polarised using the genera Nannotrigona and Paratrigona as outgroups. The resulting phylogenetic hypothesis suggested that the subgenus Plebeia (Plebeia) is not monophyletic and should either be broken up or have the monotypic subgenus Schwarziana synonymised with Plebeia s. str.