Ovarian development in Meliponine bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae): the effect of queen presence and food on worker ovary development and egg production

Abstract

Morphological studies of Meliponine worker ovaries in five species indicated a possible stimulatory effect of the queen on ovary development and on the production of trophic eggs in some of them. There are also indications that the queen inhibits the production of fertile eggs by the workers. This inhibition may involve a delay in the development of fertile eggs by the worker, until she is out of direct contact with the queen, or a lack of ovary development in the queen's presence, as seen in Leurotrigona muelleri. The evolutionary tendency toward inability to produce fertile eggs has its extreme representation in the pupal worker ovary reabsorption found in Frieseomelitta silvestri. On the other hand, the finding, in some species, of dwarf queens with the basic number of ovarioles (four) in the ovaries, along with normal, trophically determined queens with larger numbers of ovarioles in the ovaries demonstrate the influence of food on this character, as in Apis mellifera.

Ovariole structure and oogenesis in queens and workers of the stingless beeMelipona quadrifasciata(Hymenoptera: Apidae, Meliponini) kept under different social conditions

“…In M. quadrifasciata, most of these developing follicles found in the young workers should probably become trophic eggs, and Cruz-Landim (2000) proposed that rapid follicle growth of the future trophic eggs may be due to precocious yolk deposition in the oocyte and that the stimulatory effect for the production of trophic eggs may come from the continuous contact that these young workers have with the queen. In our study, however, we observed essentially similar timelines of follicle development for workers that were in contact with a queen, for orphan workers that did not have any contact with a queen, and also for worker that were over 20 days old.…”

“…In contrast to the honey bee, and as in most stingless bees, queens and workers of Melipona quadrifasciata have four ovarioles in each ovary (Cruz-Landim, 2000). In queens, these ovarioles are more elongated than in workers.…”

When Resistance Is Useless: Policing and the Evolution of Reproductive Acquiescence in Insect Societies

“…Empirically, acquiescence can explain the observed low levels of reproductive workers found in insect societies with effective policing, such as the honeybee (Ratnieks 1993) or the common wasp (Foster and Ratnieks 2001a), and the rarity by which females cheat on their intended worker fate, which only occurs at low levels in a minority of genera (e.g., in some stingless bees; Engels and Imperatriz-Fonseca 1990;Imperatriz-Fonseca and Zucchi 1995;Ribeiro and Alves 2001;Wenseleers et al 2003;Wenseleers et al 2005c) and is entirely absent in most (e.g., in the honeybee; Winston 1987). The ultimate endpoint of acquiescence is the evolution of obligate worker sterility in some species, for example, in Atta, where workers are unable to lay viable eggs (M. Dijkstra, personal communication) and in Linepithema, Monomorium, Pheidole, and Solenopsis ants and Frieseomellitta and Duckeola stingless bees, where workers have evolutionarily lost ovaries altogether (Oster and Wilson 1978;Cruz-Landim 2000). However, because it is currently unknown whether these genera ancestrally had queen or worker policing, we cannot test whether worker sterility has indeed evolved in response to policing or whether alternative factors may have been the main cause.…”

Queen mating frequency and maternity of males in the stingless bee Trigona carbonaria Smith

“…In an extreme case, Frieseomellita silvestri workers are incapable of egg laying as ovaries are absent in adults, being reabsorbed during the pupal phase (Cruz-Landim, 2000). Workers of some other species can lay trophic eggs, which differ morphologically from fertile male-destined eggs.…”