Exocrine secretions of bees—VII. Aliphatic esters in the dufour's gland secretion of Svastra obliqua obliqua (hymenoptera: anthophoridae)

Duffield, R. M.; LaBerge, Wallace E.; Wheeler, J. W.

doi:10.1016/0305-0491(84)90143-3

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 18 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This gland is known to produce secretions extremely rich in diverse natural products (Hefetz 1987), including traces of cholesterol (Mitra 2013). The assumption that the Dufour's gland may be involved in sterol addition Melittidae is supported by the larval nutritional function of Dufour's gland secretions that have been already described in Anthophora , Emphoropsis , and Megachile bees (Norden et al 1980;Cane and Carlson 1984;Duffield et al 1984;review in Mitra 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Sterol addition during pollen collection by bees: another possible strategy to balance nutrient deficiencies?

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sterols are essential nutrients for bees which are thought to obtain them exclusively from pollen. It is possible that variability in pollen sterol content shapes pollinator-flower relationships, as bee species require the physiological capacity or behavioral adaptations to cope with unfavorable sterolic composition of pollen. One behavioral adaptation used by generalist bees to avoid deficiencies is the mixing of different pollen types from multiple botanical families to achieve an optimal nutritional balance. However, a possible strategy that has never been investigated is the specific addition of nutrients by adult bees to pollen during foraging trips. Here, we analyzed the pollen sterols from 48 plant species and assessed their relation with the level of bee dietary specialization. We also investigated whether sterol addition or modification might occur during pollen collection by comparing handand bee-collected pollen for nine bee species. Our results show that sterolic composition tends to be similar within the same plant family, but there was no impact of overall relatedness. For pollen sterol content and bee specialization, pollen from plants used by specialist bees displayed more uncommon sterols than pollen from plants used by generalist bees. In addition, a sterol addition behavior may occur during foraging trips and could be considered a possible strategy to balance nutrient deficiencies. Such behavior was unrelated to bee specialization as this phenomenon was observed in both the generalist Apis mellifera and specialist Dasypoda hirtipes , suggesting that sterols might constitute a physiological constraint even for specialist species.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Sterol addition during pollen collection by bees: another possible strategy to balance nutrient deficiencies?

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In particular, Dufour’s gland of bees is known to be an extremely rich source of diverse natural products, which are mostly used for lining the brood cell and communication 63 . The assumption that hypertrophied Dufour’s gland may be involved in melittid tolerance to nutritional variations is supported by the larval nutritional function of Dufour’s gland secretions described in Anthophora, Emphoropsis and Megachile bees 64 65 . Although M. leporina group does not appear physiologically constrained in terms of floral preference, another mechanism, possibly not atavistic, might have driven the incorporation of novel hosts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The importance of pollen chemistry in evolutionary host shifts of bees

Vanderplanck

Vereecken

Grumiau

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Although bee-plant associations are generally maintained through speciation processes, host shifts have occurred during evolution. Understanding shifts between both phylogenetically and morphologically unrelated plants (i.e., host-saltation) is especially important since they could have been key processes in the origin and radiation of bees. Probably far from being a random process, such host-saltation might be driven by hidden constraints associated with plant traits. We selected two clades of oligolectic bees (i.e., Colletes succinctus group and Melitta leporina group) foraging on co-flowering but unrelated host-plants to test this hypothesis. We analyzed floral scent, floral color and chemical composition of pollen from host and non-host plants of these two clades. We did not find evidence for host-plant evolution in the Melitta leporina group driven by one of the assayed floral traits. On the contrary, hosts of the C. succinctus group display similar primary nutritive content of pollen (i.e., amino acids and sterols) but not similar floral scent or color, suggesting that shared pollen chemistry probably mediates saltation in this clade. Our study revealed that constraints shaping floral associations are diverse and clearly depend on species life-history traits, but evidence suggests that pollen chemistry may act as a major floral filter and guide evolutionary host-shifts.

show abstract

“…Interestingly, the esters found in T. hyalinata recruitment pheromone are also found in other glandular extracts thought to have an attractive function. These include the Dufour’s gland in Andrena (Fernandes et al 1981; Hefetz 1987), Dufourea (Wheeler et al 1985), and Svastra (Duffield et al 1984) bee species, and mandibular and preputial glands that likely produce sex pheromones in several Myrmecocystus ant species (Lloyd et al 1989) and the Brandt’s vole (Zhang et al 2007), respectively.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Olfactory eavesdropping between two competing stingless bee species

Lichtenberg

Hrncir

Turatti

et al. 2010

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Foragers can improve search efficiency, and ultimately fitness, by using social information: cues and signals produced by other animals that indicate food location or quality. Social information use has been well studied in predator–prey systems, but its functioning within a trophic level remains poorly understood. Eavesdropping, use of signals by unintended recipients, is of particular interest because eavesdroppers may exert selective pressure on signaling systems. We provide the most complete study to date of eavesdropping between two competing social insect species by determining the glandular source and composition of a recruitment pheromone, and by examining reciprocal heterospecific responses to this signal. We tested eavesdropping between Trigona hyalinata and Trigona spinipes, two stingless bee species that compete for floral resources, exhibit a clear dominance hierarchy and recruit nestmates to high-quality food sources via pheromone trails. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry of T. hyalinata recruitment pheromone revealed six carboxylic esters, the most common of which is octyl octanoate, the major component of T. spinipes recruitment pheromone. We demonstrate heterospecific detection of recruitment pheromones, which can influence heterospecific and conspecific scout orientation. Unexpectedly, the dominant T. hyalinata avoided T. spinipes pheromone in preference tests, while the subordinate T. spinipes showed neither attraction to nor avoidance of T. hyalinata pheromone. We suggest that stingless bees may seek to avoid conflict through their eavesdropping behavior, incorporating expected costs associated with a choice into the decision-making process.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00265-010-1080-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

show abstract

Exocrine secretions of bees—VII. Aliphatic esters in the dufour's gland secretion of Svastra obliqua obliqua (hymenoptera: anthophoridae)

Cited by 4 publications

References 18 publications

Sterol addition during pollen collection by bees: another possible strategy to balance nutrient deficiencies?

Sterol addition during pollen collection by bees: another possible strategy to balance nutrient deficiencies?

The importance of pollen chemistry in evolutionary host shifts of bees

Olfactory eavesdropping between two competing stingless bee species

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About