An unusual recruitment strategy in a mass-recruiting stingless bee, Partamona orizabaensis

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Isabelle C. Flaig ; Ingrid Aguilar ; Thomas Schmitt…
• 关键词：Mass recruitment ; Guiding flights ; Cephalic gland chemistry ; Labial gland hydrocarbons ; Mandibular gland esters
• 刊名：Journal of Comparative Physiology A
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：October 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：202
• 期：9-10
• 页码：679-690
• 全文大小：869 KB
• 刊物主题：Animal Physiology; Neurosciences; Zoology;
• 出版者：Springer Berlin Heidelberg
• ISSN：1432-1351
• 卷排序：202

文摘

Foragers of several stingless bee species deposit attractive scent marks on solid substrates to precisely recruit nestmates to food. Interestingly, Partamona workers quickly recruit large numbers of nest mates to resources, likely even without the deposition of attractive scent marks. However, systematic studies of the recruitment system of these bees are lacking. We now studied the recruitment behavior of P. orizabaensis. Our findings show that foragers of this species can recruit large numbers of nestmates to food sources at a particular location. The precise nestmate recruitment does not rely on attractive scent marks deposited on substrates. We never observed any scent marking behavior and feeders baited with labial or mandibular gland extracts were not attractive for the bees. Chemical analyses showed that the foragers’ labial gland secretions exclusively contain long chain hydrocarbons, which render their role in recruitment communication unlikely. Whether mandibular gland secretions, which contain esters and alcohols that are known as attractive pheromones in other bee species, are used to guide recruits toward food during flight, remains elusive. We conclude that Partamona’s quick recruitment system that does not rely on conspicuous scent marks has evolved as a strategy against competition with sympatrically occurring and more aggressive bee species.