Evolution and Diversity of Stingless Bees

Grüter, Christoph

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-60090-7_2

Cited by 12 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 95 publications

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“…First of all, careful observations may be required and correctly documented. In Meliponini, including T. angustula, not all the resins were added to propolis, some will be used as resins deposits (piles inside the nest almost made of resins, used as defence) and some will be added to pots (Grüeter 2020). Thus, the proper chemical comparison is required to effectively con rm the use of S. parahyba resin as a propolis component.…”

Section: Gathering Between Seasonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tetragonisca angustularesin gathering behaviour ofSchizolobium parahyba

Regnier

2021

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Tetragonisca angustula is a very important stingless bees species. This study aimed to report the resin gathering behaviour of this species of a possible new resin source: Schizolobium parahyba. Evaluations of temperature, number of bees in gathering activity, time and season were used to characterize bee's behaviour. Resin gathering activities were concentered between 10 and 14 hours, with a moderate linear positive correlation index with the temperature. No bee activity was observed when temperatures were below 16.69°C. Gathering suffered extreme reduction during winter and greater activity in summer. Bees exploration were concentered on the younger leafs and apical portion of S. parahyba. Older leafs were mainly ignored, and gradually the exploring activity was constantly migrating to most young parts, while apical exploration was consistent all the studied period.

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Section: Gathering Between Seasonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Stingless bees gather plant resins to build nest structures and use them in the composition of propolis to protect the hive (Grüeter 2020). This is mainly attributed to the higher moisture content inside the nest, which could spoil provisions if pots are made purely of wax (Melo 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tetragonisca angustularesin gathering behaviour ofSchizolobium parahyba

Regnier

2021

Preprint

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“…Stingless bees (Meliponini) comprise more than 550 species ( Rasmussen and Cameron 2010 ; Grüter 2020 ), all of which are highly eusocial. The density at which they can be found in an environment creates intense inter- and intra-specific competition for limited resources ( Johnson and Hubbell 1974 ; Hubbell and Johnson 1978 ; Hrncir and Maia-Silva 2013a , 2013b ).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The density at which they can be found in an environment creates intense inter- and intra-specific competition for limited resources ( Johnson and Hubbell 1974 ; Hubbell and Johnson 1978 ; Hrncir and Maia-Silva 2013a , 2013b ). Stingless bees forage for a number of resources including water, pollen, nectar, plant sap, and resin ( Roubik 1989 ; Grüter 2020 ). Nectar is the primary carbohydrate source for most stingless bees.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Mass-recruiting stingless bees are able to recruit using field-based communication to a specific food location. Field-based communication mechanisms include scent trailing, food site marking and, potentially, aerial odor trails reviewed in Lindauer and Kerr (1960 ); Nieh (2004 ); Barth et al (2008 ); Jarau and Hrncir (2009 ); and Grüter (2020 ). In some cases, it is still unknown how foragers are able to recruit nestmates to specific locations (e.g., Partamona orizabaensis , Flaig et al 2016 ).…”

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An exploration of the relationship between recruitment communication and foraging in stingless bees

et al. 2021

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Social information is widely used in the animal kingdom and can be highly adaptive. In social insects, foragers can use social information to find food, avoid danger or choose a new nest site. Copying others allows individuals to obtain information without having to sample the environment. When foragers communicate information they will often only advertise high quality food sources, thereby filtering out less adaptive information. Stingless bees, a large pantropical group of highly eusocial bees, face intense inter- and intra-specific competition for limited resources, yet display disparate foraging strategies. Within the same environment there are species that communicate the location of food resources to nest-mates and species that do not. Our current understanding of why some species communicate foraging sites while others do not is limited. Studying freely foraging colonies of several co-existing stingless bee species in Brazil, we investigated if recruitment to specific food locations is linked to (1) the sugar content of forage, (2) the duration of foraging trips and (3) the variation in activity of a colony from one day to another and the variation in activity in a species over a day. We found that, contrary to our expectations, species with recruitment communication did not return with higher quality forage than species that do not recruit nestmates. Furthermore, foragers from recruiting species did not have shorter foraging trip durations than those from weakly-recruiting species. Given the intense inter- and intraspecific competition for resources in these environments, it may be that recruiting species favour food resources that can be monopolised by the colony rather than food sources that offer high-quality rewards.

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Feeding Sugars to Stingless Bees: Identifying the Origin of Trehalulose-Rich Honey Composition

Hungerford

Zhang

Smith

et al. 2021

J. Agric. Food Chem.

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The beneficial disaccharide, trehalulose, is a feature of stingless bee honey, while not dominant in any other foods. By experimentally feeding sugar solutions to confined colonies of the Australian stingless bee Tetragonula carbonaria, the origin of trehalulose has now been established. Complete conversion of fed sucrose was observed, by analysis of the honey, forming trehalulose (64–72%) with lesser erlose (18–23%), fructose (9–12%), and minor glucose detected. Remarkably, feeding solutions of glucose/fructose (1:1) mixtures did not result in trehalulose/erlose formation. Hence, stingless bees with natural access to floral nectar high in sucrose will produce honey high in trehalulose, with its associated beneficial properties. Any temptation to artificially increase trehalulose content by feeding sucrose to stingless bees would produce “fake” honey lacking key natural phytochemicals available to the foraging bee. The sucrose-fed fake and natural honey were however readily distinguished via isotope ratio mass spectrometry δ 13C values, to combat such potential indirect adulteration.

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Evolution and Diversity of Stingless Bees

Cited by 12 publications

References 95 publications

Tetragonisca angustularesin gathering behaviour ofSchizolobium parahyba

Tetragonisca angustularesin gathering behaviour ofSchizolobium parahyba

An exploration of the relationship between recruitment communication and foraging in stingless bees

Feeding Sugars to Stingless Bees: Identifying the Origin of Trehalulose-Rich Honey Composition

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