Abstract
Bees play a key role in ecosystem services as the main pollinators of numerous flowering plants. Studying factors influencing their foraging behavior is relevant not only to understand their biology, but also how populations might respond to changes in their habitat and to the climate. Here, we used radio-frequency identification tags to monitor the foraging behavior of the neotropical stingless beeMelipona fasciculatawith special interest in drifting patterns i.e., when a forager drifts into a foreign nest. In addition, we collected meteorological data to study how abiotic factors affect bees’ activity and behavior. Our results show that only 35% of bees never drifted to another hive nearby, and that factors such as temperature, humidity and solar irradiation affected the bees drifting rates and/or foraging activity. Moreover, we tested whether drifting levels would decrease after marking the nest entrances with different patterns. However, contrary to our predictions, there was an increase in the proportion of drifting, which could indicate factors other than orientation mistakes playing a role in this behavior. Overall, our results demonstrate how managed bee populations are affected by both nearby hives and climate factors, offering insights on their biology and potential commercial application as crop pollinators.
Highlights
Stingless bees are a highly diverse group of social bees comprising more than 500 species native to the tropical and subtropical regions of the world (Grüter, 2020a)
This study was performed with the stingless bee Melipona fasciculata, which has its natural distribution in the northern region of Brazil (Pedro, 2014)
By reconstructing their daily foraging activity of the stingless bee M. fasciculata, we could observe that bees forage during the entire day, with the average peak activity per colony at 9:00 in the morning (Figure 2D)
Summary
Stingless bees are a highly diverse group of social bees comprising more than 500 species native to the tropical and subtropical regions of the world (Grüter, 2020a). Some species of stingless bees are already successfully managed in small scale, notably those from the genus Melipona that have been traditionally used for honey production in the Americas, with several other stingless bee genera used in Africa, Asia and Oceania (CortopassiLaurino et al, 2006; Quezada-Euán et al, 2018; Orr et al, 2021) Despite their great potential to be used as commercial pollinators (Cruz et al, 2005; Del Sarto et al, 2005; Slaa et al, 2006; Bispo dos Santos et al, 2009; Hikawa and Miyanaga, 2009; Nunes-Silva et al, 2013; Caro et al, 2017; Silva-Neto et al, 2019; Giannini et al, 2020; Layek et al, 2021), the large scale application of stingless bee species with this purpose is not yet as developed as for example honeybees and bumblebees (Roubik, 1995; Ramírez et al, 2018; Roubik et al, 2018). It is important to understand basic aspects of their biology such as foraging activity patterns, as well as their viability to be managed prior to any potential application of stingless bee populations
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