No abstract

Swarm-founding ‘Warrior wasps’ (Synoeca spp.) are found throughout the tropical regions of South America, are much feared due to their aggressive nest defence and painful sting. There are only five species of Synoeca, all construct distinctive nests that consist of a single sessile comb built onto the surface of a tree or rock face, which is covered by a ribbed envelope. Although locally common, research into this group is just starting. We studied eight colonies of Synoeca septentrionalis, a species recently been described from Brazil. A new colony is established by a swarm of 52 to 140 adults that constructs a colony containing around 200 brood cells. The largest colony collected containing 865 adults and over 1400 cells. The number of queen’s present among the eight colonies varied between 3 and 58 and no clear association between colony development and queen number was detected. Workers and queens were morphologically indistinguishably, but differences in their cuticular hydrocarbons were detected, particularly in their (Z)-9-alkenes. The simple cuticular profile, multiple queens, large size and small number of species makes the ‘Warrior wasps’ an excellent model group for further chemical ecology studies of swarm-founding wasps.

Transportation to long distances and handling of colonies can affect development and survival conditions of bees. Our study investigated the stress intensity of individuals of Melipona scutellaris Latreille, 1811, due to transportation of colonies to long distances, within the natural range of the species. We used 746 bee workers. The right and left forewings were removed and measured using 15 landmarks in vein insertions. Individuals were divided into four groups: (1) workers collected at the origin site, (2) workers emerged at the place of destination in pupal stage during transportation, (3) workers emerged at the destination site in the 3rd instar of larval stage during transportation, and (4) workers collected after three months of colony establishment at the destination site. The Procrustes ANOVA showed significant results as well as the presence of Fluctuating Asymmetry (FA) in all treatments for the shape of wings (P<0.01). However, in the comparison of groups using the One-Way ANOVA, only workers that emerged at the destination site in the 3rd instar of larval stage during transportation (Group 3) significantly differentiated (P<0.05) from the others, with a higher FA index. The larval stage underwent more stress due to colony transportation. Beekeepers should take good care of colonies during transportation in order to minimize damages to workers to prevent quality loss of services and products offered by bees.

No abstract

We investigated the influence of winter and summer on Varroa destructor infestation in honey bees from the Atlantic Forest in 28 apiaries, also registering the temperature and rainfall for the locations. We found 94% of the honey bee colonies were infested by varroa mite and its prevalence was higher in summer. General varroa infestation level was 4.2±3.9%. Colonies over winter (5.12±4.8%) presented higher infestation compared to summer (3.4±2.5%) ranging from 0 to 17.8% and Pearson correlation showed a low degree of correlation between temperature (r = -0.24; p=0.03) and rainfall (r = 0.23; p=0.04) with varroa infestation levels. We concluded that seasons can influence the mite infestation level and high mite levels found in some colonies, evidencing the need for constant monitoring to avoid colony loss.