How queen and workers share in male production in the stingless bee Melipona subnitida Ducke (Apidae, Meliponini)

Abstract

Potential conflict between the queen and workers over the production of males is expected in stingless bees as a result of the higher relatedness of workers with their sons than with their brothers. This conflict was studied in Melipona subnitida by observing how the queen and the workers share in male production. The oviposition of individual cells was observed in two colonies with individually marked workers for a period of 51 and 40 days respectively. The gender that developed from these cells was then determined. The results revealed that most male production was concentrated in a 2 -3-week period, during which laying workers were present. During these weeks, the queens produced twice as many males as all laying workers together. Outside this distinct period, the queens produced an occasional male. A reproductive worker either oviposited before the queen did, in which case she immediately proceeded to close the cell and thus prevented the queen from oviposition, or oviposited and sealed the cell after the queen had laid an egg. When cell construction and oviposition occured on several combs simultaneously, the workers preferentially laid male eggs on the newest combs. We discuss the proximate mechanism and ultimate cause of the way in which queenworker male production occurred. In conclusion, we argue that overt behavioural conflict, occasionally displayed by reproductive workers of this species, can be of great cost to the colony.

The males of Melipona and other stingless bees, and their mothers

“…It is, therefore, a wide-spread event. MPPs may be the result of a synchronous, albeit differential, production of reproductive eggs by a number of workers, sometimes with the production of haploid eggs by the queen, over a short period of time (days or weeks) (Koedam and Imperatriz-Fonseca, 2004a;Koedam et al, 2005).…”

“…They included the following species: M. quadrifasciata (Bezerra, 1995), M. subnitida (Koedam et al, , 2005Alves, unpublished), M. beecheii (Moo-Valle et al, 2001), M. favosa (Koedam, 1999;Sommeijer et al, 2003;Chinh, 2004), M. trinitatis , M. asilvai (Alves, unpublished), and M. bicolor (Alves, 2004).…”

Comparative Analysis of Worker Reproduction and Policing in Eusocial Hymenoptera Supports Relatedness Theory

“…M. subnitida. Male parentage has been investigated using allozymes (Contel and Kerr 1976) and behavioral study Koedam et al 2005). The estimate of WPM for the behavioral studies was taken directly from the published sources.…”

Influência da quantidade de recursos alimentares e da sazonalidade sobre a produção de sexuados em Scaptotrigona aff. depilis (Apidae, Meliponini)

“…No entanto, o grupo que possuía maior quantidade de alimento estocado também recebeu reforço alimentar quinzenalmente, de forma que mais de um fator foi incluído no desenho experimental, o que pode ter enviesado os resultados. Outra abordagem experimental foi realizada por Koedam et al (2005), que proporcionaram uma condição de alimento excedente a duas colônias de Melipona subnitida (reforço de pólen com mel, em quantidade não indicada), resultando em um aumento na produção de machos (aumentos de 2,9 % para 47,2 % e 0,2 % para 25,5 %). Nesse caso, não houve um controle para a manipulação, sendo que os resultados apresentados devem ser discutidos com cautela.…”

“…No entanto, são escassos os trabalhos que envolvem alguma manipulação experimental (Moo-Valle et al, 2001;Koedam et al, 2005), sendo que a maior parte dos estudos já citados possuem caráter descritivo. Dado que existe uma demanda conflitante entre a produção de sexuados e o crescimento das colônias, um estudo que investigasse experimentalmente o efeito da quantidade de alimento e da sazonalidade nas colônias poderia contribuir para a compreensão de como as colônias regulam a alocação de recursos sob a oscilação das condições ambientais e internas da colônia.…”