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Food profitability affects intranidal recruitment behaviour in the stingless bee Nannotrigona testaceicornis

2008; Springer Science+Business Media; Volume: 39; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1051/apido

1297-9678

Veronika Schmidt, Michael Hrncir, Dirk Louis P. Schorkopf, Sidnei Mateus, Ronaldo Zucchi, Friedrich G. Barth,

Insect and Pesticide Research

Does the food’s sugar concentration affect recruitment behaviour in the stingless bee Nannotrigona testaceicornis? We recorded intranidal forager behaviour while offering sugar water of constant, increasing, or decreasing concentrations. Running speed was not correlated with sugar concentration but the jostling contacts/sec were. Food profitability also affected the recruiter’s thorax vibrations: Pulse duration and duty cycle followed both concentration increases and decreases. Sugar concentration also influenced the number of recruited bees. In comparison to the phylogenetically closely related Scaptotrigona, Nannotrigona’s intranidal recruitment behaviour showed a more elaborate association with food profitability. This is likely to reflect differences in ecology and foraging strategies as Nannotrigona — in contrast to Scaptotrigona — does not lay scent trails to guide recruits to a food source.