Artículos Científicos

URI permanente para esta colecciónhttp://10.0.96.45:4000/handle/11056/17242

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A scientific note on trail pheromone communication in a stingless bee, Scaptotrigona pectoralis (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponini)
(INRA, DIB-AGIB and Springer Science, 2011-02-21) Jarau, Stefan; Hemmeter, Kathrin; Aguilar, Ingrid; Ayasse, Manfred
Foragers of eusocial stingless bees use a variety of communication mechanisms to inform their nestmates about the presence of valuable food sources and to recruit workers to the task of food collection (e.g., Barth et al. 2008). Recruitment to food sources at specific locations is particularly effective in species that use pheromones deposited by foragers at the resource and at various spots on the substrate along their flight root back towards the nest (Lindauer and Kerr 1960).
A scientific note on virgin queen acceptance in stingless bees: evidence for the importance of queen aggression
(Springer Nature, 2010-01) Jarau, Stefan; Van Veen, Johan; Aguilar, Ingrid; Ayasse, Manfred
Stingless bees (Apidae, Meliponini), which are close relatives to honey bees (Apidae, Apini) and share with them a highly eusocial colonial organization (Michener, 2000), are remarkable for their habit of producing virgin queens throughout the year (Engels and Imperatriz-Fonseca, 1990). Most of these queens are not needed for a colony’s survival or division, however, and get executed some time after their emergence (Imperatriz-Fonseca and Zucchi, 1995).
Nest-specific composition of the trail pheromone of the stingless bee Trigona corvina within populations
(Springer, 2012) John, Lena; Aguilar, Ingrid; Ayasse, Manfredo; Jarau, Stefan
Social insects have evolved highly developed communication systems, enabling them to coordinate complex interactions in their colonies. Pheromones play a major role in the coordination of many tasks. In Trigona corvina, a stingless bee that occurs in Central America, foragers use pheromones produced in their labial glands to scent mark solid substrates between a food source and their nest. Newly recruited bees subsequently follow these scent marks until they reach the food source. A recent study has revealed nestspecific differences in the composition of these trail pheromones in colonies of T. corvina, suggesting that pheromone specificity may serve to avoid competition between foragers from different nests. However, the nests used in this study came from different populations and their foragers certainly never met in the field (Jarau et al., 2010). The aim of the present study was to investigate whether differences in the trail pheromones of foragers from different nests can also be found between neighbouring colonies within populations. We analysed the composition of trail pheromones from labial gland secretions extracted from workers from nine colonies collected at three different populations in Costa Rica. The differences in pheromone composition were even more distinct between neighbouring nests within a population than between nests of different populations. This finding corroborates the hypothesis that nest specificity of trail pheromones serves to communicate the location of a food source exclusively to nestmates, thereby avoiding intraspecific competition at resources. Resource partitioning by avoiding conspecific non-nestmates is particularly adaptive for aggressive bee species, such as T. corvina.
Physicochemical differentiation of stingless bee honeys from Costa Rica
(Taylor and Francis Group, 2021-04-06) Umaña, Eduardo; Zamora, Gabriel; Aguilar, Ingrid; Pérez-Salazar, Roy; Solórzano, Rebeca; Herrera, Eduardo; Arias, Maria Laura; Sanchez, Luis Angel
We characterized Tetragonisca angustula and Melipona beecheii honeys produced in Costa Rica according to their physical and chemical properties. Moreover, we found critical parameters that distinguish the honeys from each other. Forty-eight samples of honey of both stingless bee species were analyzed (T. angustula, n = 32; M. beecheii, n = 16). T. angustula honey is characterized by having significantly higher average values of proline (464.6 mg/kg), ash (0.481 g/100 g), diastase (17.5 Schade units/g), and free acidity (79.4 me/kg); while M. beecheii honey has significantly higher average values for fructose (32.7 g/100g), glucose (28.2- 30.2 g/100 g), water content (23.5 g/100 g), and invertase activity (65.7 U/kg). It was inferred from the results obtained that the honey produced by M. beecheii comes from nectars with a higher sugar concentration compared to the nectars used by T. angustula to produce their honey, which it was in good accordance to previous literature reports.
Stingless bees (Scaptotrigona pectoralis) learn foreign trail pheromones and use them to find food
(Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, 2010-11-04) Aguilar, Ingrid; Jarau, Stefan; Ayasse, Manfred; Reichle, Christian
Foragers of several species of stingless bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae and Meliponini) deposit pheromone marks in the vegetation to guide nestmates to new food sources. These pheromones are produced in the labial glands and are nest and species specific. Thus, an important question is how recruited foragers recognize their nestmates pheromone in the field. We tested whether naı¨ve workers learn a specific trail pheromone composition while being recruited by nestmates inside the hive in the species Scaptotrigona pectoralis. We installed artificial scent trails branching off from trails deposited by recruiting foragersand registered whether newly recruited bees follow these trails. The artificial trails were baited with trail pheromones of workers collected from foreign S. pectoralis colonies. When the same foreign trail pheromone was presented inside the experimental hives while recruitment took place a significant higher number of bees followed the artificial trails than in experiments without intranidal presentation. Our results demonstrate that recruits of S. pectoralis can learn the composition of specific trail pheromone bouquets inside the nest and subsequently follow this pheromone in the field. We, therefore, suggest that trail pheromone recognition in S. pectoralis is based on a flexible learning process rather than being a genetically fixed behaviour.
Virgin queen execution in the stingless bee Melipona beecheii: the sign stimulus for worker attacks
(INRA/DIB-AGIB/EDP Sciences, 2009-01-21) Jarau, Stefan; Van Veen, Johan W.; Aguilar, Ingrid; Ayasse, Manfred
Stingless bees produce considerable numbers of virgin queens over the year, most of which are superfluous and get executed by the workers. Nothing is known yet about the sign stimulus that releases the worker attacks. In the present study we investigated the queen execution process in Melipona beecheii and found in both behavioral observations and experiments with caged living virgin queens that workers are not attracted to them from a distance by means of volatile chemicals. Furthermore, worker aggression, which is obvious towards virgin queens that run through the nest excitedly with their abdomen enlarged and the wings beating, was lowered to almost zero when we made the queens “behavior-less” by experimentally killing them. Our results clearly show that the sign stimulus for releasing the execution behavior in Melipona beecheii workers is not a chemical stimulus but the virgin queens’ conspicuous behavior, which, we hypothesize, could act as a direct measure of their fitness.

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Examinando Artículos Científicos por Autor "Aguilar, Ingrid"