Nest architecture of the stingless bee Geotrigona subterranea (Friese,1901) (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini)

Abstract

Abstract:We located ten nests of Geotrigona subterranea in the transition area between Cerrado and Caatinga within the municipalities of Lontra and Januária, state of Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil. We collected the nests to study their architecture in detail. In the present paper, we describe the general nest structure of this bee species in terms of: number, shape and area of the combs; size of the brood cells; size of honey and pollen pots; volume of honey and mass of pollen stored in closed pots; presence of inquiline species; and defensive characteristics. All nests were found in subterranean cavities. The nest structure of G. subterranea is similar to that of other congeneric species. Keywords: bionomy, nesting, stingless bee, mombuca bee. Resumo: Foram localizados dez ninhos de Geotrigona subterranea em áreas de transição entre o Cerrado e a Caatinga nos municípios de Lontra e Januária, Estado de Minas Gerais. Os ninhos foram coletados para observação da arquitetura. Neste trabalho são apresentadas informações sobre estrutura geral e forma do ninho desta espécie; número, forma e área dos favos de cria; tamanho de células de cria; tamanho de potes de mel e pólen; volume dos potes de mel e massa de pólen em potes fechados; presença de inquilinos e características de defesa. Todos os ninhos foram encontrados em cavidades subterrâneas. De modo geral, esta espécie apresenta estrutura de ninho similar a apresentada por outras espécies do mesmo gênero. Palavras-chave: bionomia, nidificação, abelha sem ferrão, abelha Mombuca. Biota Neotrop., vol. 13, no. 1 completely withdraw the contents. We weighed the mass of pollen in closed pots with analytic scales.We estimated the population size with the equation (X + X/2), in which X represents the total number of cells obtained, following Aidar (1996).The collected specimens were sent to the Department of Biology, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, for identification. Results Nesting siteAll nests were built in underground cavities. The nests 01, 02, 07, 09, and 10 were built in abandoned ant nests; the nests 04 and 05 were found in inactive nests of subterranean termites; the nest 08 was found in a simple cavity between the ground and a masonry structure; the nests 03 and 06 were found in chambers formed by rainwater. Data on nest architecture are presented in Table 1.Among the nests studied, two were located in shaded areas with dense vegetation and the others in sunny areas, which were clean or covered with undergrowth. The excavated nests were found in soils with different physical properties, especially in terms of texture. Nest architecture Nest entranceThe entrance hole is circular with a diameter that ranges from 0.85 cm to 1.20 cm and an average value of 1.0 cm. In all nests, we observed detritus around the entrance, composed of particles of clay, gravel, leaves, sticks, and sawdust in a pile reaching up to 14 cm (Figure 1). The height of the pile of waste varied among environments; it was higher in are...

Nest Architecture of Tetragona clavipes (Fabricius) (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponini)

“…Spiral brood comb was observed in all colonies studied here, corroborating findings reported by Sakagami and Zucchi (1967) and Nogueira-Neto (1970), and can occur in other Meliponini (Laroca, 1971;Wille & Michener, 1973;NogueiraNeto, 1997;Souza et al, 2007;Brito et al, 2012;Barbosa et al, 2013). The population of colonies in Ribeirão Preto was far above the maximum population of 10,000 bees calculated by Tóth et al (2004), possibly due to the different estimation methods.…”

Estimating colonies of Plebeia droryana (Friese, 1900) (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponini): adults, brood and nest structure

“…We found the occurrence of an involucrum and the resin pile, typical of this species. In the brood area, the involucrum layers keep the temperature by retaining the heat production from brood metabolism (Wille, 1983;Engels et al, 1995;Barbosa et al, 2013). The presence of garbage dump deposit was observed in this study such as previously reported by Nogueira-Neto (1997) in other stingless bee species.…”

Chemical Composition of Ecuadorian Commercial Pot-Honeys: Trigona fuscipennis "Abeja De Tierra", Melipona mimetica "Bermejo" and Scaptotrigona ederi "Catiana"

“…The fact that average of free acidity in the Ecuadorian Trigona is 609.33 meq/kg should be explained by the species and the interactions of the underground nest with the soil. Behavioral observations of the underground bees and their nests are needed to understand such a different pot-honey [43], and hypothesize the origin of such chemical array. This is a very thin honey with 37.06 g/100 g water content, almost double of the 20% maximum permitted in the Ecuadorian honey norm [25].…”