High precision during food recruitment of experienced (reactivated) foragers in the stingless bee Scaptotrigona mexicana (Apidae, Meliponini)

Naturwissenschaften. 2004 Jul;91(7):346-9. doi: 10.1007/s00114-004-0536-6. Epub 2004 Jun 18.

Abstract

Several studies have examined the existence of recruitment communication mechanisms in stingless bees. However, the spatial accuracy of location-specific recruitment has not been examined. Moreover, the location-specific recruitment of reactivated foragers, i.e., foragers that have previously experienced the same food source at a different location and time, has not been explicitly examined. However, such foragers may also play a significant role in colony foraging, particularly in small colonies. Here we report that reactivated Scaptotrigona mexicana foragers can recruit with high precision to a specific food location. The recruitment precision of reactivated foragers was evaluated by placing control feeders to the left and the right of the training feeder (direction-precision tests) and between the nest and the training feeder and beyond it (distance-precision tests). Reactivated foragers arrived at the correct location with high precision: 98.44% arrived at the training feeder in the direction trials (five-feeder fan-shaped array, accuracy of at least +/-6 degrees of azimuth at 50 m from the nest), and 88.62% arrived at the training feeder in the distance trials (five-feeder linear array, accuracy of at least +/-5 m or +/-10% at 50 m from the nest). Thus, S. mexicana reactivated foragers can find the indicated food source at a specific distance and direction with high precision, higher than that shown by honeybees, Apis mellifera, which do not communicate food location at such close distances to the nest.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Agriculture
  • Animal Feed
  • Animals
  • Bees / physiology*
  • Feeding Behavior / physiology*