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Signals and cues in the recruitment behavior of stingless bees (Meliponini)

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Abstract

Since the seminal work of Lindauer and Kerr (1958), many stingless bees have been known to effectively recruit nestmates to food sources. Recent research clarified properties of several signals and cues used by stingless bees when exploiting food sources. Thus, the main source of the trail pheromone in Trigona are the labial, not however the mandibular glands. In T. recursa and T. spinipes, the first stingless bee trail pheromones were identified as hexyl decanoate and octyl decanoate, respectively. The attractant footprints left by foragers at the food source are secreted by glandular epithelia of the claw retractor tendon, not however by the tarsal gland. Regarding intranidal communication, the correlation between a forager’s jostling rate and recruitment success stresses the importance of agitated running and jostling. There is no evidence for a “dance” indicating food source location, however, whereas the jostling rate depends on food quality. Thoracic vibrations, another intranidal signal well known in Melipona, were analyzed using modern technology and distinguishing substrate vibrations from airborne sound. Quantitative data now permit estimates of signal and potential communication ranges. Airflow jets as described for the honeybee were not found, and thoracic vibrations do not “symbolically” encode visually measured distance in M. seminigra.

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Acknowledgments

Our own research would not have been possible without the hospitality and advice we have enjoyed for many years in the laboratories of Professor Ronaldo Zucchi at the University of São Paulo in Ribeirão Preto. The enthusiasm and scientific contributions of our collaborators mentioned on the original publications and of numerous students of Vienna University are much appreciated. Particular thanks go to Veronika Schmidt and Dirk-Louis Schorkopf. Generous financial support of our studies came from the Austrian Science Foundation FWF through grants P 14328 and P 17530 to FGB. Our work also profited from the Karl von Frisch prize awarded to FGB by the German Zoological Society and from student grants of Vienna University awarded for studies abroad.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurobiology and Cognition Research, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Althanstr.14, 1090, Vienna, Austria

    Friedrich G. Barth

  2. Department of Biology, FFCLRP, University of São Paulo, Avenida Bandeirantes 3900, 14040-901, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil

    Michael Hrncir

  3. Institute of Experimental Ecology, University of Ulm, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89069, Ulm, Germany

    Stefan Jarau

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  1. Friedrich G. Barth
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Correspondence to Friedrich G. Barth.

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We dedicate this review to Martin Lindauer and Warwick Kerr who pioneered research on the communication and recruitment in stingless bees by studies reported in a seminal paper published in this Journal half a century ago in 1958.

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Barth, F.G., Hrncir, M. & Jarau, S. Signals and cues in the recruitment behavior of stingless bees (Meliponini). J Comp Physiol A 194, 313–327 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-008-0321-7

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