Hovering guards of the stingless bee <Emphasis Type="Italic">Tetragonisca angustula</Emphasis> increase colony defensive perimeter as shown by intra- and inter-specific comparisons |
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Authors: | Jelle S van Zweden Christoph Grüter Sam M Jones Francis LW Ratnieks |
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Institution: | (1) Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QC, UK |
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Abstract: | Social insects need to defend their nest against robbery, parasitism and predation. The stingless bee Tetragonisca angustula is unique in that it has guards that hover near the nest entrance in addition to guards that stand at the entrance. We tested
both the general hypothesis that hovering guards increase the effectiveness with which flying intruders are detected and the
specific hypothesis that hovering guards improve the detection of workers of the obligate robber bee, Lestrimellita limao. In an intraspecific study comparing colonies, we found a strong positive relationship between the number of hovering guards
and the distance at which a dummy robber bee or L. limao worker, experimentally moved towards the nest entrance, was detected. These results were mirrored in an interspecific study
showing that four species of stingless bees with similar population colonies but which lacked hovering guards, detected L. limao only at the nest entrance, in contrast to T. angustula. In addition, we found that a greater number of attacks by guards occurred when dummies were impregnated with citral, a major
component of L. limao mandibular gland odour. Our results support the hypothesis that T. angustula hovering guards increase the detection perimeter for flying intruders, especially L. limao. |
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