Apidologie

, Volume 42, Issue 6, pp 679–689 | Cite as

Comparative temperature tolerance in stingless bee species from tropical highlands and lowlands of Mexico and implications for their conservation (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini)

  • José Octavio Macías-Macías
  • José Javier G. Quezada-Euán
  • Francisca Contreras-Escareño
  • José Maria Tapia-Gonzalez
  • Humberto Moo-Valle
  • Ricardo Ayala
Original article
First Online:
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Revised:
Accepted:

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the temperature sensitivity of three stingless bee species, one from the tropical highland transition Neartic-Neotropical region (Melipona colimana) and two from the tropical lowland regions (Melipona beecheii and Scaptotrigona hellwegeri) of Mexico. The changes in thoracic temperature, behavior, and mortality rate of workers and pupae of the three species submitted to control high and low temperatures were assessed. Workers of highland M. colimana regurgitated water and fanned their wings when submitted to high temperatures, a behavior reported here for the first time in a stingless bee. M. colimana consumed syrup and increased its thoracic temperature in response to cold environment. Workers and pupae of M. colimana experienced lower mortality rates than M. beecheii and S. hellwegeri. The results of this study showed the tolerance of M. colimana to a wider temperature range, possibly as a response to extreme conditions in its native environment. The implications of thermal susceptibility differences for the conservation of highland and lowland stingless bees are discussed.

Keywords

Melipona Scaptotrigona Apidae temperature tolerance behavior temperate forest Mexico 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank people who have contributed to this work, especially to Angelica Farias S, Jalil Fallad and Judith Hueso. To SEP-Conacyt project 103341 “Conservacion de las abejas sin aguijon de Mexico (Hymenoptera: Meliponini): Identificacion de especies cripticas e indicadores de diversidad genetica” and Conacyt-Promep for the financial support granted to J. Octavio Macías-Macías to achieve a doctoral degree at the Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan, and to Bernardo Soto and Gustavo Alcazar and to the Centro Universitario del Sur (CUSUR) of the Universidad de Guadalajara for providing facilities in which the experiments were conducted.

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Copyright information

© INRA, DIB-AGIB and Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  • José Octavio Macías-Macías
    • 1
  • José Javier G. Quezada-Euán
    • 2
  • Francisca Contreras-Escareño
    • 1
  • José Maria Tapia-Gonzalez
    • 3
  • Humberto Moo-Valle
    • 2
  • Ricardo Ayala
    • 4
  1. 1.Laboratorio de Abejas, Departamento de Producción Agrícola, Centro Universitario de la Costa SurUniversidad de GuadalajaraAutlán de NavarroMexico
  2. 2.Departamento de Apicultura, Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y ZootecniaUniversidad Autónoma de YucatánMéridaMexico
  3. 3.Departamento de Producción AnimalCentro Universitario del Sur, Universidad de GuadalajaraZapotlán el GrandeMexico
  4. 4.Estación de Biología Chamela, Instituto de BiologíaUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoSan PatricioMexico

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