Hygienic behavior of the stingless bee Plebeia remota (Holmberg, 1903) (Apidae, Meliponini)

Nunes‐Silva, Patrícia; Imperatriz-Fonseca, Vera Lúcia; Ls, Goncalves

doi:10.4238/vol8-2kerr026

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Overall, the results of this study and those of previous research (Nunes-Silva et al, 2009; Medina et al, 2009) suggest that most or all stingless bee species and most colonies exhibit high levels of hygienic behaviour, removing brood that has been killed by freezing, or in the case of S. depilis , by an as yet unidentified disease. The presence of one S. depilis colony, which was producing many workers with shrivelled wings and had a low level of hygienic behaviour, leads to the hypothesis that hygienic behaviour plays an important but previously unrecognized role in combating brood diseases in stingless bees.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

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Hygienic behaviour in Brazilian stingless bees

et al. 2016

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Social insects have many defence mechanisms against pests and pathogens. One of these is hygienic behaviour, which has been studied in detail in the honey bee, Apis mellifera. Hygienic honey bee workers remove dead and diseased larvae and pupae from sealed brood cells, thereby reducing disease transfer within the colony. Stingless bees, Meliponini, also rear broods in sealed cells. We investigated hygienic behaviour in three species of Brazilian stingless bees (Melipona scutellaris, Scaptotrigona depilis, Tetragonisca angustula) in response to freeze-killed brood. All three species had high mean levels of freeze-killed brood removal after 48 h ∼99% in M. scutellaris, 80% in S. depilis and 62% in T. angustula (N=8 colonies per species; three trials per colony). These levels are greater than in unselected honey bee populations, ∼46%. In S. depilis there was also considerable intercolony variation, ranging from 27% to 100% removal after 2 days. Interestingly, in the S. depilis colony with the slowest removal of freeze-killed brood, 15% of the adult bees emerging from their cells had shrivelled wings indicating a disease or disorder, which is as yet unidentified. Although the gross symptoms resembled the effects of deformed wing virus in the honey bee, this virus was not detected in the samples. When brood comb from the diseased colony was introduced to the other S. depilis colonies, there was a significant negative correlation between freeze-killed brood removal and the emergence of deformed worker bees (P=0.001), and a positive correlation with the cleaning out of brood cells (P=0.0008). This shows that the more hygienic colonies were detecting and removing unhealthy brood prior to adult emergence. Our results indicate that hygienic behaviour may play an important role in colony health in stingless bees. The low levels of disease normally seen in stingless bees may be because they have effective mechanisms of disease management, not because they lack diseases.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

“…Indeed, all eight colonies of S. pectoralis would have been considered highly hygienic, >95% removal within 2 days, by honey bee standards. In Brazil, Plebeia remota has also been studied for hygienic behaviour using pin-killed brood, which resulted in 96.4% removal after 48 h (Nunes-Silva et al, 2009). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hygienic behaviour in Brazilian stingless bees

et al. 2016

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“…The workers of M. q. anthidioides seem to achieve LR within 48 h from the examination of seven cells of larvae and seven of pupae, although this small sample may arguably have placed a limitation on our conclusions. Compared with other species of stingless bees, it appears that the removal of dead brood is relatively less effective in M. q. anthidioides , because, during investigations by Medina et al (2009), Nunes-Silva et al (2009), and Toufailia et al (2016, more dead brood were removed within 48 h from a higher number of cells for their respective species. However, none of these studies made distinctions between the stages of brood development.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Medina et al (2009) observed HB in Scaptotrigona pectoralis and M. beecheii using frozen brood assay and found 100% removal of dead pupae after 2.3 ± 0.6 days and 4.4 ± 2.0 days, respectively. Nunes-Silva et al (2009) of freeze-killed brood after 48 h of 99.3% in M. scutellaris , 79.5% in S. depilis and 62% in Tetragonisca angustula .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most studies on HB are carried out with A. mellifera (Gramacho and Gonçalves 2009;Pérez-Sato et al 2009;Wilson-Rich et al 2009;Morais et al 2010;Stevanovic et al 2011;Pinto et al 2012;Bigio et al 2013;Nicodemo et al 2013;Pereira et al 2013;Rasolofoarivao et al 2015). Few species of stingless bees have been investigated in terms of HB, namely Melipona beecheii , Scaptotrigona pectoralis ) and Plebeia remota (Nunes-Silva et al 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hygienic behavior in Melipona quadrifasciata anthidioides (Apidae, Meliponini)

et al. 2017

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Hygienic behavior in stingless bees is a trait of workers that confers colony-level resistance against some brood diseases. Workers of hygienic colonies detect, uncap and remove dead or diseased brood from the nest cells. We examined the hygienic behavior in stingless bees (Melipona quadrifasciata anthidioides ) from freezekilled brood assay using liquid nitrogen. Responses were measured at 14 times (3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144, 168, 192, 216, 240 and 264 h after freeze-killing of the brood). Workers were estimated to remove on average 65% of larvae and 34% of dead pupae within 48 h of freezing. Workers removed dead brood rapidly after uncapping the cells. Strong colonies showed a greater removal of dead pupae, while the size of the population did not influence the removal of dead larvae. These findings report for the first time the hygienic behavior in M. q. anthidioides and confirm that workers have more difficulty removing pupae compared with larvae from the combs.generalized linear models / stingless bees / hygienic colonies / dead brood removal / freeze-killed brood

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Enemies, Dangers and Colony Defence

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2020

Fascinating Life Sciences

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Hygienic behavior of the stingless bee Plebeia remota (Holmberg, 1903) (Apidae, Meliponini)

Cited by 8 publications

References 10 publications

Hygienic behaviour in Brazilian stingless bees

Hygienic behaviour in Brazilian stingless bees

Hygienic behavior in Melipona quadrifasciata anthidioides (Apidae, Meliponini)

Enemies, Dangers and Colony Defence

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