The relationship between queen execution and cuticular hydrocarbons in stingless bee Melipona scutellaris (Hymenoptera: Meliponini)

Souza, Edmilson Amaral de; Trigo, José Roberto; Santos, Douglas Elias; Vieira, Carlos Ueira; Serrão, José Éduardo

doi:10.1007/s00049-016-0226-9

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 48 publications

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“…Under queenright situations, most virgin queens are killed by workers soon after emergence or whenever they become sexually attractive (Imperatriz-Fonseca and Zucchi 1995; Wenseleers et al 2004;Jarau et al 2009;Kärcher et al 2013;de Souza et al 2017).…”

Section: Queen Selection By Workersmentioning

confidence: 99%

The queens of the stingless bees: from egg to adult

et al. 2023

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Queens play an essential role in the colonies of stingless bees. Typically, only one queen occurs in a colony at any time, and she dominates the egg laying. Their presence maintains colony cohesion and ensures the development and survivorship of these matriarchal societies. Yet there remain significant gaps in our knowledge of queen life cycles as compared to their daughters, the workers. In this review, we follow chronologically the life of queens from pre-emergence inside brood cells (caste determination), to their interaction with workers (queen selection) and males (sexual selection), and up to adulthood. Stingless bee queens can be determined either trophically or genetically. After emergence, the virgin queens undergo a selection process whereby many are executed by workers. The body size, pheromones, age and behaviour of virgin queens may play a role in queen selection. Queens then leave the nest on a nuptial flight during which they mate just once. After mating, queens are still susceptible to workers’ harassment. For example, if they produce diploid males they are killed by workers. Previous studies have successfully in vitro reared and mated virgin queens under laboratory conditions, which have revealed new insights of queen development time, the threshold of minimum and maximum provided food to larvae developing into queens, and lethal and sublethal effects of agrochemical substances. These new techniques have also provided new information about queen physiology. However, the daily routine of queens inside colonies demands further well-designed experiments to capture other patterns of behaviour which remain poorly understood, including their interactions with other queens, workers and even males.

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Section: Queen Selection By Workersmentioning

confidence: 99%

The queens of the stingless bees: from egg to adult

et al. 2023

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Swarming and Mating

Grüter

2020

Stingless Bees

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Virgin queen behaviour and controlled mating in the stingless bee Tetragonula carbonaria (Meliponini)

et al. 2022

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Improving knowledge of virgin queen behaviour and mating biology in stingless bees (Meliponini) is an important step towards artificial selection programmes for managed colonies. Here we study the Australian stingless bee Tetragonulacarbonaria to (1) describe the behaviour of queens from eclosion until egg-laying, and (2) assess whether young queens can be reared and mated under constrained conditions. We extracted mature virgin queen cells of T.carbonaria from large colonies and reared them in queen maturation boxes containing a limited number of workers (“micro-colonies”). Queen behaviour followed a typical pattern with three phases: a period of high activity and wing-flapping on top of the brood (5 ± 2 days of age), attempts to leave the colony for the nuptial flight (12 ± 3 days of age), and oviposition (20 ± 6 days of age). In total, 71% (68 of 95) of queen cells hatched in our maturation boxes and 57% (39 of 68) survived to mating age, with some observed to be actively killed by workers within the first week of life (8 of 68; 11%). For a subset of our queens, we performed controlled matings (either with or without CO2 narcosis) by presenting constrained females to males in mating aggregations, allowing one male to mate (deposit mating plug) and then returning queens to their box. In the absence of CO2 narcosis, 30% of queens mated this way were subsequently found to have sperm in their spermathecae, indicative of a successful mating (5 of 17). The remaining 70% however contained no sperm, despite the presence of the male mating plug. Amongst queens that were CO2 narcotized before and during the controlled mating, none had sperm in their spermathecae (0 of 12), though most went on to activate their ovaries following the mating and lay male (haploid) eggs. Together, these trials indicate that controlled matings with T.carbonaria are possible, but suggest that queens may need to actively accept mating for successful sperm transfer.

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The relationship between queen execution and cuticular hydrocarbons in stingless bee Melipona scutellaris (Hymenoptera: Meliponini)

Cited by 4 publications

References 48 publications

The queens of the stingless bees: from egg to adult

The queens of the stingless bees: from egg to adult

Swarming and Mating

Virgin queen behaviour and controlled mating in the stingless bee Tetragonula carbonaria (Meliponini)

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