High precision during food recruitment of experienced (reactivated) foragers in the stingless bee<Emphasis Type="Italic"> Scaptotrigona mexicana</Emphasis> (Apidae,Meliponini) |
| |
Authors: | Daniel?Sánchez James?C?Nieh Yann?Hénaut Leopoldo?Cruz Email author" target="_blank">Rémy?VandameEmail author |
| |
Institution: | (1) El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Carretera Antiguo Aeropuerto km 2.5, 30700 Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico;(2) Division of Biological Sciences, Section of Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, Mail Code 0116, La Jolla, CA 92093-0116, USA |
| |
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° 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. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 PubMed SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|