Behavioral alterations and related aspects in queenless colonies of Geotrigona mombuca (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponinae)

摘要

Unlike honeybees, queenright colonies of many stingless bees taxa present ovary-developed nurse workers. During the cell provisioning and oviposition process (POP) of Geotrigona mombuca they often oviposit nearby structurally completed but unprovisioned brood cells and their eggs are eaten by the queen and nearby workers. Under orphanage the strongly caste interactive nature of the POP substantially alters, and several unusual features appear, e.g., unusual cell construction rhythms, uncommon patterns of cell provisioning and cell sealing, changes in the timing of worker's ovipositions, etc. But, irrespectively of such alterations the primordial trophic role of the worker's-bom eggs in Geotrigona continues unchanged even under orphanage, as the ovipositing nurse bees, although changing the timing of their ovipositions keep their inability of laying in contact to the brood food what obviously precludes the development of their eggs. So, among stingless bees taxa normally presenting ovary-developed nurse bees under queenhood, G. mombucais the first confn-med case in which the queen bears reproduction exclusivity or, conversely, the only clear example in which worker's eggs are exclusively trophic. This remarkably differs from some species of Scaptotrigona and Melipona in which male parentage is eventually shared by both castes.