Effect of food quality, distance and height on thoracic temperature in the stingless bee Melipona panamica

摘要

Stingless bees (Apidae, Meliponini) can recruit nestmates to good food sources. We present the first data showing that recruiting meliponine foragers at feeders and inside nests regulate their thoracic temperature according to net food profitability. Using infrared thermography, we found that Melipona panamica foragers elevated their thoracic temperature at profitable food sources (higher sucrose concentration, closer to the nest). At food sources, there is an increase of approximately 0.9 degrees C in thoracic temperature (T(th)) per 1 mol l(-1) increase in sucrose concentration (at 20 m distance from nest: 1 mol l(-1) sucrose concentration, T(th)=36.6+/-0.8 degrees C, T(a)=31.3+/-0.5 degrees C; 2.5 mol l(-1) sucrose concentration, T(th)=36.9+/-0.6 degrees C, T(a)=29.9+/-0.2 degrees C). Inside the nest, the difference between thoracic temperature T(th) and ambient air temperature T(a) (DeltaT(nest)) decreases by 0.4 degrees C with each 100 m increase in feeder-to-nest distance and increases by 0.1 degrees C per 1 mol l(-1) increase in sucrose concentration. The T(th) of returning foragers was significantly higher at all tested sucrose concentrations (1.0-2.5 mol l(-1) sucrose concentration) and distances (25-437 m) as compared to T(a) (at 2.5 mol l(-1) sucrose concentration: 25 m distance from nest, intranidal T(th)=30.2+/-1.3 degrees C, T(a)=24.8+/-0.7 degrees C; 437 m distance from nest, intranidal T(th)=28.6+/-1.7 degrees C, T(nest)=25.4+/-1.4 degrees C). For highly profitable food sources (2.5 mol l(-1) sucrose concentration and