Genetic structure of the stingless beeTetragonisca angustula

Abstract

18The stingless bee Tetragonisca angustula Latreille 1811 is one of the most widespread bee 19 species in the Neotropics, distributed from Mexico to Argentina. However, this wide 20 distribution contrasts with the low distance that females travel to build new nests whereas 21 nothing is known about male dispersion. Previous studies of T. angustula were ambiguous 22 concerning its genetic structure and were based only on nuclear markers and on small and/or 23 limited sample size. Here we evaluate the genetic structure of several populations of T. 24 angustula by using mitochondrial DNA and microsatellites. These markers can help us to 25 detect differences in the migratory behavior between males and females. Our results showed 26 that the populations were highly differentiated suggesting that both females and males are low 27 dispersers. Therefore, its continental distribution might consist of several different taxa. 28 29

Genetic variability in captive populations of the stingless bee Tetragonisca angustula

“…2). High population structuring reported by mtDNA analysis has also been observed for wild populations of several stingless bees (Quezada-Euán et al 2007;Brito and Arias 2010;Francisco and Arias 2010;May-Itzá et al 2010;Thummajitsakul et al 2011;Quezada-Euán et al 2012;Brito et al 2013;Francisco et al 2013;Bonatti et al 2014;Francisco et al 2015). However, this pattern in natural populations has been attributed to the female philopatric behavior.…”

“…We classified the meliponary management activity in four main categories (a-d) based primarily on nest divisions and transport of nests: a. no division and transport of nests, no nest maintenance, no trade of honey; b. division and maintenance of nests, no transport of nest (according to the beekeepers), informal trade of honey; c. division and maintenance of nests, transport and import of nests from west state of Paraná according to beekeepers, trade of honey; d. division through nest traps spread in order to collect new swarms from their own meliponary (Table 1). Genetic data of wild samples were gathered from previous work of Francisco et al (2015), totaling 89 individuals collected in 17 natural nests (one individual per nest) and on flowers in São Sebastião city (SP) and surrounding the Parque Nacional do Iguaçu (PR) ( Table 1 and Online Resource 1). Bees were preserved in 96 % ethanol and transported to the laboratory.…”

“…The program MICRO-CHECKER 2.2.3 (Van Oosterhout et al 2004) was used to verify the presence of scoring errors. The nine loci used for genotyping were previously tested in natural populations (Francisco et al 2015) and did not present HWE (HardyWeinberg equilibrium) deviations, LD (Linkage disequilibrium) or null alleles.…”