Abstract
Biparental care is very rare in insects, and it was well-documented in only one bee species to this date – Ceratina nigrolabiata. However, biparental care was only recently discovered in this species, and detailed description of natural history of this species is missing. Here, we describe the nesting cycle of C. nigrolabiata. Pairs of C. nigrolabiata are established before female starts offspring provisioning. After provisioning is finished (when youngest offspring reached larval stage), the male abandons the nest. Males which are present in nests where female already finished provisioning brood cells, are probably mainly temporary visitors. The female can perform long-time offspring guarding, but only 22% of completely provisioned nests are guarded by a female. Most nests (54%) are closed and abandoned, when provisioning is completed, and other (24%) are orphaned before provisioning is finished. Guarded nests have statistically higher number of brood cells provisioned than unguarded nests. Generally, C. nigrolabiata is unique among bees due to its biparental behavior, but it has also uncommon traits of nesting biology among Ceratina bees, e.g. fast offspring development in comparison with provisioning rate, and high proportion of nests which are closed and abandoned by mother.
Highlights
Biparental care is very rare in insects, and it was well-documented in only one bee species to this date – Ceratina nigrolabiata
C. nigrolabiata is unique among bees due to its biparental behavior, but it has uncommon traits of nesting biology among Ceratina bees, e.g. fast offspring development in comparison with provisioning rate, and high proportion of nests which are closed and abandoned by mother
In our previous paper[32], we reported the presence of biparental care in C. nigrolabiata and evaluated benefits of males and females through the phases of provisioning of brood cells
Summary
Biparental care is very rare in insects, and it was well-documented in only one bee species to this date – Ceratina nigrolabiata. Parental care is a very effective way of increasing offspring survival[1,2,3,4] It has significant costs, because care is time-consuming for the parent[1,5]. Males have a significant role in several species of crabronid wasps of the genus Trypoxylon, where biparental care is d ocumented[29,30]. Males of this genus perform nest guarding against natural enemies and help with nest building[30,31]
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