Produção Nacional
Revisado por pares
Chemical identity of recently emerged workers, males, and queens in the stingless bee Melipona marginata
2013; Springer Science+Business Media; Volume: 44; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1007/s13592-013-0214-9
ISSN1297-9678
AutoresMaria Juliana Ferreira‐Caliman, Tiago Falcón, Sidnei Mateus, Ronaldo Zucchi, Fábio Santos do Nascimento,
Tópico(s)Insect and Pesticide Research
ResumoEpicuticular hydrocarbons are involved in several behavioral processes in social insects including recognition of nestmates, castes, and sex. The aim of the present study was to characterize and to verify differences in the chemical profiles of 1-day recently emerged workers, males, and queens in colonies of the stingless bee Melipona marginata. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and multivariate analyses of bee samples from three colonies clearly separated cuticular hydrocarbon profiles of males, queens, and workers. The results showed that cuticular hydrocarbon profiles were comprised of alkanes, alkenes, and methyl alkanes that varied quantitatively and qualitatively according to the castes and sex. Different from previous studies, our investigation also demonstrated that males and queens presented higher similarity in their epicuticular hydrocarbons than to workers.
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