Authors: Couvillon, Margaret¹; Ratnieks, Francis²

Source: Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, Volume 62, Number 7, May 2008 , pp. 1099-1105(7)

Publisher: Springer

Abstract:

In group-level recognition, discriminators use sensory information to distinguish group members and non-members. For example, entrance guards in eusocial insect colonies discriminate nestmates from intruders by comparing their odour with a template of the colony odour. Despite being a species-rich group of eusocial bees closely related to the honey bees, stingless bee nestmate recognition is a relatively little-studied area. We studied Frieseomelitta varia, a common Brazilian species of stingless bee known as marmelada. By measuring the rejection rates of nestmate and non-nestmate worker bees by guards, we were able to show that guards became significantly less accepting (from 91 to 46%) of nestmates that had acquired odour cues from non-nestmate workers; however, guards did not become significantly more accepting (from 31 to 42%) of non-nestmates that had acquired equivalent amounts of odour cues from the guard's nestmates. These data strongly suggest that guards use an “undesirable-absent” system in recognition, whereby incoming conspecific workers are only accepted if undesirable cues are absent, despite the presence of desirable cues. We suggest that an undesirable-absent system is adaptive because robbing by conspecifics may be an important selective factor in F. varia, which would lead to selection for a non-permissive acceptance strategy by guards.

Keywords: Group-level recognition; Frieseomelitta varia; Acceptance strategy; Stingless bees

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00265-007-0537-5

Affiliations: 1: Laboratory of Apiculture & Social Insects, Department of Animal & Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK, Email: mjcouv@email.arizona.edu 2: Laboratory of Apiculture & Social Insects, Department of Animal & Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK

Publication date: 2008-05-01

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