In stingless bees of the genus Melipona, worker- and queen-destined larvae are reared in brood cells of the same size and receive the same amount of food (Fig. 1). This is apparently in marked contrast to all other social species of corbiculate bees – including the vast majority of stingless bees – in which nurse workers provide larger amounts of food (containing specific compounds in at least some species) to queen-destined than to worker-destined larvae [3, 6]. Another striking peculiarity observed in Melipona nests is that queens are produced throughout the year, and their numbers can be remarkably high, up to one quarter of the female brood [6].
Brood provisioning, oviposition, and caste-specific development in Melipona beecheii. (a) The physogastric queen (lower left corner) has just laid an egg in a brood cell, which contains the full amount of larval food deposited by nurse bees, immediately before being closed by the surrounding workers. (b) Section of a brood comb that...
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Jarau, S. (2020). Caste Differentiation: Melipona. In: Starr, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Social Insects. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90306-4_152-1
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