Abstract
In contrast to marking of the location of resources or sexual partners using single-spot pheromone sources, pheromone paths attached to the substrate and assisting orientation are rarely found among flying organisms. However, they do exist in meliponine bees (Apidae, Apinae, Meliponini), commonly known as stingless bees, which represent a group of important pollinators in tropical forests. Worker bees of several Neotropical meliponine species, especially in the genus Scaptotrigona Moure 1942, deposit pheromone paths on substrates between highly profitable resources and their nest. In contrast to past results and claims, we find that these pheromone paths are not an indispensable condition for successful recruitment but rather a means to increase the success of recruiters in persuading their nestmates to forage food at a particular location. Our results are relevant to a speciation theory in scent path-laying meliponine bees, such as Scaptotrigona. In addition, the finding that pheromone path-laying bees are able to recruit to food locations even across barriers such as large bodies of water affects tropical pollination ecology and theories on the evolution of resource communication in insect societies with a flying worker caste.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aguilar Monge I (2004) Communication and recruitment for the collection of food in stingless bees: a behavioral approach. Dissertation, University of Utrecht
Aguilar I, Fonseca A, Biesmeijer JC (2005) Recruitment and communication of food source location in three species of stingless bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponini). Apidologie 36:313–324
Alcock J (2009) Animal behavior. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland
Barth FG, Hrncir M, Jarau S (2008) Signals and cues in the recruitment behavior of stingless bees (Meliponini). J Comp Physiol A 194:313–327
Beckers R, Deneubourg JL, Goss S, Pasteels JM (1990) Collective decision making through food recruitment. Insectes Soc 37:258–267
Biesmeijer JC (1997) The organisation of foraging in stingless bees of the genus Melipona, an individual-oriented approach. Dissertation, University of Utrecht
Biesmeijer JC, Ermers CW (1999) Social foraging in stingless bees: how colonies of Melipona fasciata choose among nectar sources. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 46:129–140
Biesmeijer JC, van Nieuwstadt MGL, Lukács S, Sommeijer MJ (1998) The role of internal and external information in foraging decisions of Melipona workers (Hymenoptera: Meliponinae). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 42:107–116
Billen J (2006) Signal variety and communication in social insects. Proc Neth Entomol Soc Meet 17:9–25
Blum MS, Brand JM (1972) Social insect pheromones: their chemistry and function. Am Zool 12:553–576
Blum MS, Crewe RM, Kerr WE, Keith LH, Garrison AW, Walker MM (1970) Citral in stingless bees: isolation and functions in trail-laying and robbing. J Insect Physiol 16:1637–1648
Cassill D (2003) Rules of supply and demand regulate recruitment to food in an ant society. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 54:441–450
Detrain C, Deneubourg JL (2008) Collective decision-making of foraging patterns in ants and honeybees. Adv Insect Physiol 35:123–173
Devigne C, Detrain C (2006) How does food distance influence foraging in the ant Lasius niger: the importance of home-range marking. Insectes Soc 53:46–55
Dyer FC (2002) The biology of the dance language. Ann Rev Entomol 47:917–949
Esch H (1967) The evolution of bee language. Sci Am 216:96–104
Frisch Kv (1965) Tanzsprache und Orientierung der Bienen. Springer, Berlin
Frisch Kv (1967) Dance language and orientation of bees. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Gardner A, Grafen A (2009) Capturing the superorganism: a formal theory of group adaptation. J Evol Biol 22:659–671
Hangartner W (1969) Structure and variability of the individual odor trail in Solenopsis germinata Fabr. (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Z Vergl Physiol 62:111–120
Hölldobler B, Wilson EO (1990) The ants. Springer, Berlin
Hölldobler B, Wilson EO (2009) The superorganism. W.W. Norton, London
Jarau S (2009) Chemical communication during food exploitation in stingless bees. In: Jarau S, Hrncir M (eds) Food exploitation by social insects. CRC, Boca Raton, pp 223–249
Jarau S, Hrncir M (2009) Food exploitation by social insects. CRC, Boca Raton
Jarau S, Hrncir M, Zucchi R, Barth FG (2000) Recruitment behavior in stingless bees, Melipona scutellaris and M. quadrifasciata. I. Foraging at food sources differing in direction and distance. Apidologie 31:81–91
Jarau S, Hrncir M, Schmidt VM, Zucchi R, Barth FG (2003) Effectiveness of recruitment behavior in stingless bees (Apidae, Meliponini). Insectes Soc 50:365–374
Jarau S, Hrncir M, Zucchi, Barth FG (2004) A stingless bee uses labial gland secretions for scent trail communication (Trigona recursa Smith 1863). J Comp Physiol A 190:233–239
Kaib M (1999) Termites. In: Hardie J, Minks AK (eds) Pheromones of non-lepidopteran insects associated with agricultural plants. CAB International, Oxon, pp 329–353
Kaib M (2000) Chemical signals and communication in termites: a review. Mitt dtsch Ges allg angew Ent 11:211–218
Kerr WE (1969) Some aspects of the evolution of social bees (Apidae). Evol Behav 3:119–175
Kerr WE, Esch H (1965) Comunicação entre as abelhas sociais brasileiras e sua contribuição para o entendimento da sua evolução. Ciencia e Cultura [São Paulo] 17:129–538
Kerr WE, Blum M, Fales HM (1981) Communication of food source between workers of Trigona (Trigona) spinipes. Rev Bras Biol 41:619–623
Lindauer M (1975) Verständigung im Bienenstaat. Gustav Fischer, Stuttgart
Lindauer M, Kerr WE (1958) Die gegenseitige Verständigung bei den stachellosen Bienen. Z vergl Physiol 41:405–434
Lindauer M, Kerr WE (1960) Communication between the workers of stingless bees. Bee World 41:29–41 (see also 65–71)
Michener C (1974) The social behavior of the bees. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Moure JS (1942) Abelhas de Salobra (Hym. Apoidea). Papeís Avulsos 2:291–321
Nieh JC (1999) Stingless-bee communication. Am Sci 87:428–435
Nieh JC (2004) Recruitment communication in stingless bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponini). Apidologie 35:159–182
Nieh JC, Roubik DW (1995) A stingless bee (Melipona panamica) indicates food location without using a scent trail. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 37:63–70
Nieh JC, Tautz J, Spaethe J, Bartareau T (2000) The communication of food location by a primitive stingless bee, Trigona carbonaria. Zoology 102:238–246
Nieh JC, Contrera FAL, Nogueira-Neto P (2003) Pulsed mass-recruitment by a stingless bee, Trigona hyalinata. Proc R Soc Lond B 270:2191–2196
Nieh JC, Contrera FAL, Yoon RR, Barreto LS, Imperatriz-Fonseca VL (2004) Polarized short odor-trail recruitment communication by a stingless bee, Trigona spinipes. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 56:435–448
Reeve HK, Hölldobler B (2007) The emergence of a superorganism through intergroup competition. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104:9736–9740
Sánchez D, Nieh JC, Hénaut Y, Cruz L, Vandame R (2004) High precision during food recruitment of experienced (reactivated) foragers in the stingless bee Scaptotrigona mexicana (Apidae, Meliponini). Naturwissenschaften 91:346–349
Schmidt VM, Zucchi R, Barth FG (2003) A stingless bee marks the feeding site in addition to the scent path (Scaptotrigona aff. depilis). Apidologie 34:237–248
Schmidt VM, Zucchi R, Barth FG (2006a) Recruitment in a scent trail laying stingless bee (Scaptotrigona aff. depilis): Changes with reduction but not with increase of the energy gain. Apidologie 37:487–500
Schmidt VM, Schorkopf DLP, Hrncir M, Zucchi R, Barth FG (2006b) Collective foraging in a scent trail laying stingless bee (Trigona recursa): dependence on food profitability and sequence of discovery. Anim Behav 72:1309–1317
Schorkopf DLP, Jarau S, Francke W, Twele R, Zucchi R, Hrncir M, Schmidt VM, Ayasse M, Barth FG (2007) Spitting out information: Trigona bees deposit saliva to signal resource locations. Proc R Soc Lond B 274:895–898
Schorkopf DLP, Hrncir M, Mateus S, Zucchi R, Schmidt VM, Barth FG (2009) Mandibular gland secretions of meliponine worker bees: further evidence for their role in interspecific and intraspecific defence and aggression and against their role in food source signalling. J Exp Biol 212:1153–1162
Seeley TD (1989) The honey bee colony as a superorganism. Am Sci 77:546–553
Seeley TD (1995) The wisdom of the hive. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Slaa EJ, Wassenberg J, Biesmeijer JC (2003) The use of field-based social information in eusocial foragers: Local enhancement among nestmates and heterospecifics in stingless bees. Ecol Entomol 28:369–379
Sumpter DJT, Beekman M (2003) From nonlinearity to optimality: pheromone trail foraging by ants. Anim Behav 66:273–280
Traniello JFA, Robson SK (1995) Trail and territorial communication in social insects. In: Cardé RT, Bell WJ (eds) Chemical ecology of insects. Chapman and Hall, New York, pp 241–286
Vander Meer RK, Breed M, Espelie KE, Winston ML (1998) Pheromone communication in social insects. Westview, Boulder
Wilson EO (1965) Trail sharing in ants. Psyche [Cambridge] 72:2–7
Wilson EO (1971) The insect societies. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Wilson EO, Hölldobler B (2005) Eusociality: origin and consequences. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102:13367–13371
Wilson DS, Sober E (1989) Reviving the superorganism. J Theor Biol 136:337–356
Wyatt TD (2003) Pheromones and animal behaviour. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Acknowledgments
We dedicate this publication to the memory of two outstanding scientists who contributed seminal work to the study of meliponine bees: Martin Lindauer (1918–2008) and João Maria Franco de Camargo (1941–2009). We are very grateful to the Headmasters’ Office of the University of São Paulo (Piracicaba Campus) for authorising our work at the lake in front of the engineering building. N.C. Noronha, A.G.C. Signoretti, H.R. dos Santos and J.C.R. Castilho helped us to realize the physically demanding rope-above-the-lake experiments. Finally, we thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive criticisms which helped to improve the manuscript. Supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF (project P17530 to F.G.B.). The present research complies with the current Brazilian environmental laws, SISBIO 65469826, Nr. 15200/1.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schorkopf, D.L.P., Morawetz, L., Bento, J.M.S. et al. Pheromone paths attached to the substrate in meliponine bees: helpful but not obligatory for recruitment success. J Comp Physiol A 197, 755–764 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-011-0638-5
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-011-0638-5