Intraspecific queen parasitism in a highly eusocial bee

Tom Wenseleers; Denise A. Alves; Tiago M. Francoy; Johan Billen; Vera L. Imperatriz-Fonseca

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2010.0819

Intraspecific queen parasitism in a highly eusocial bee

Biology Letters ◽

10.1098/rsbl.2010.0819 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 173-176 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Tom Wenseleers ◽

Denise A. Alves ◽

Tiago M. Francoy ◽

Johan Billen ◽

Vera L. Imperatriz-Fonseca

Keyword(s):

Social Parasitism ◽

Stingless Bee ◽

Genetic Evidence ◽

Reproductive Parasitism ◽

Insect Societies ◽

Great Excess ◽

Eusocial Bees

Insect societies are well-known for their advanced cooperation, but their colonies are also vulnerable to reproductive parasitism. Here, we present a novel example of an intraspecific social parasitism in a highly eusocial bee, the stingless bee Melipona scutellaris . In particular, we provide genetic evidence which shows that, upon loss of the mother queen, many colonies are invaded by unrelated queens that fly in from unrelated hives nearby. The reasons for the occurrence of this surprising form of social parasitism may be linked to the fact that unlike honeybees, Melipona bees produce new queens in great excess of colony needs, and that this exerts much greater selection on queens to seek alternative reproductive options, such as by taking over other nests. Overall, our results are the first to demonstrate that queens in highly eusocial bees can found colonies not only via supersedure or swarming, but also by infiltrating and taking over other unrelated nests.

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Caste-specific gene expression in the stingless bee Melipona quadrifasciata ? Are there common patterns in highly eusocial bees?

Insectes Sociaux ◽

10.1007/s00040-004-0771-z ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 51 (4) ◽

pp. 352-358 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

C. Judice ◽

K. Hartfelder ◽

G. A. G. Pereira

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

Stingless Bee ◽

Specific Gene ◽

Specific Gene Expression ◽

Melipona Quadrifasciata ◽

Eusocial Bees

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Intergenerational reproductive parasitism in a stingless bee

Molecular Ecology ◽

10.1111/j.1365-294x.2009.04324.x ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 18 (19) ◽

pp. 3958-3960 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

BENJAMIN P. OLDROYD ◽

MADELEINE BEEKMAN

Keyword(s):

Stingless Bee ◽

Reproductive Parasitism

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Drifting bumble bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) workers in commercial greenhouses may be social parasites

Canadian Journal of Zoology ◽

10.1139/z04-181 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 82 (12) ◽

pp. 1843-1853 ◽

Cited By ~ 40

Author(s):

Anna L Birmingham ◽

Shelley E Hoover ◽

Mark L Winston ◽

Ron C Ydenberg

Keyword(s):

Social Insect ◽

Social Parasitism ◽

Worker Reproduction ◽

Bumble Bee ◽

Nectar Robbing ◽

Social Parasites ◽

Aggressive Interactions ◽

Insect Societies ◽

Bombus Occidentalis ◽

Behavioural Consequence

Commercial greenhouses require high densities of managed bumble bee (Bombus occidentalis Greene, 1858 and Bombus impatiens Cresson, 1863) colonies to pollinate crops such as tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum Miller). We examined drifting, a behavioural consequence of introducing closely aggregated colonies into greenhouse habitats, to determine possible explanations for observed drifting frequencies. Bee drift is normally associated with increased individual mortality and disease transfer between colonies. In this study, individual bees frequently drifted into and remained within foreign colonies. More drifting bees were found in colonies with higher worker and brood populations and greater pollen stores. Increased intracolony aggressive interactions were not associated with a higher number of drifting bees. Drifting bees had a significantly greater number of mature eggs in their ovaries than did resident worker bees residing in colonies hosting drifters, suggesting that drifting could potentially increase the fitness of individual worker bees and may not be solely a function of disorientation and (or) nectar robbing. Taken together, our results suggest that drifting of workers into foreign colonies within greenhouses may demonstrate a predisposition to social parasitism. This selfish worker reproduction challenges our previous understanding of social insect societies as being cooperative societies.

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Evidence for social parasitism of early insect societies by Cretaceous rove beetles

Nature Communications ◽

10.1038/ncomms13658 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 35

Author(s):

Shûhei Yamamoto ◽

Munetoshi Maruyama ◽

Joseph Parker

Keyword(s):

Social Parasitism ◽

Rove Beetles ◽

Insect Societies

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Foraging on some nonfloral resources by stingless bees (Hymenoptera, Meliponini) in a caatinga region

Brazilian Journal of Biology ◽

10.1590/s1519-69842005000200013 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 65 (2) ◽

pp. 291-298 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

M. C. A. Lorenzon ◽

C. A. R. Matrangolo

Keyword(s):

Stingless Bees ◽

Time Of Day ◽

Water Sources ◽

Stingless Bee ◽

Floral Resources ◽

Africanized Honey Bees ◽

Africanized Honey Bee ◽

Eusocial Bees ◽

Study Sites ◽

One Year

In a caatinga region the flowers and nonfloral resources visited by highly eusocial bees, stingless beess and Apis mellifera (Africanized honey bee) were studied. During one year, monthly sampling took place in two sites at Serra da Capivara National Park (Piauí State, Brazil), one of them, including the local village, outside the park, and the other inside, using already existing park trails. With the help of entomological nets, all bees were caught while visiting floral and nonfloral resources. At the study sites we observed more stingless bees in nonfloral resources, made possible by human presence. Twelve stingless bee species used the nonfloral resources in different proportions, showing no preference for time of day, season of the year, or sites. During the rainy season, more water sources and abundant flowering plants were observed, which attract stingless bees, even though many worker bees were found foraging in the aqueous substrates while few were observed at water sources. This relationship was higher for stingless bee species than for Africanized honey bees. Paratrigona lineata was represented by few specimens in floral and nonfloral resources and is perhaps rare in this region. Frieseomelitta silvestrii could be considered rare in the floral resources, but they were abundant in nonfloral resources. The variety and intriguing abundance of bees in nonfloral resources suggests that these are an important part of the stingless bee niches, even if these resources are used for nest construction and defense.

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Octopamine increases individual and collective foraging in a neotropical stingless bee

Biology Letters ◽

10.1098/rsbl.2020.0238 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 16 (6) ◽

pp. 20200238 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Tianfei Peng ◽

Maximilian Schroeder ◽

Christoph Grüter

Keyword(s):

Stingless Bees ◽

Food Source ◽

Stingless Bee ◽

Response Threshold ◽

Foraging Effort ◽

Reward Seeking ◽

Wide Range ◽

Eusocial Bees ◽

Collective Foraging ◽

Regulatory Effects

The biogenic amine octopamine (OA) is a key modulator of individual and social behaviours in honeybees, but its role in the other group of highly eusocial bees, the stingless bees, remains largely unknown. In honeybees, OA mediates reward perception and affects a wide range of reward-seeking behaviours. Thus, we tested the hypothesis that OA increases individual foraging effort and collective food source exploitation in the neotropical stingless bee Plebeia droryana . OA treatment caused a significant increase in the number of bees at artificial sucrose feeders and a 1.73-times higher individual foraging frequency. This effect can be explained by OA lowering the sucrose response threshold and, thus, increasing the perceived value of the food source. Our results demonstrate that, similar to its effects on honeybees, OA increases both individual and collective food source exploitation in P. droryana . This suggests that, despite having evolved many complex behaviours independently, OA might have similar regulatory effects on foraging behaviours in the two groups of highly eusocial bees.

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Labor division in Melipona compressipes fasciculata Smith (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponinae)

Anais da Sociedade Entomológica do Brasil ◽

10.1590/s0301-80591997000100020 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 26 (1) ◽

pp. 153-162 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Katia M. Giannini

Keyword(s):

Stingless Bees ◽

Stingless Bee ◽

Work Cell ◽

Labor Division ◽

Eusocial Bees ◽

Cell Construction

Labor division in the stingless bee Melipona compressipes fasciculata Smith was analyzed and compared with that of other eusocial bees Meliponini and Trigonini. The results showed a sequence of activities which was similar to that of other stingless bees already studied, such as: grooming; cerumen work; cell construction; cleaning; the colony; provisioning and oviposition process; ventilation; enclosure gap; nectar reception; and foraging.

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Inquiline social parasites as tools to unlock the secrets of insect sociality

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2018.0193 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 374 (1769) ◽

pp. 20180193 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Alessandro Cini ◽

Seirian Sumner ◽

Rita Cervo

Keyword(s):

Social Parasitism ◽

Division Of Labour ◽

Social Parasite ◽

Social Parasites ◽

Insect Societies ◽

History Of ◽

Reproductive Division Of Labour ◽

Insect Sociality ◽

Taxonomic Groups ◽

Reproductive Division

Insect societies play a crucial role in the functioning of most ecosystems and have fascinated both scientists and the lay public for centuries. Despite the long history of study, we are still far from understanding how insect societies have evolved and how social cohesion in their colonies is maintained. Here we suggest inquiline social parasites of insect societies as an under-exploited experimental tool for understanding sociality. We draw on examples from obligate inquiline (permanent) social parasites in wasps, ants and bees to illustrate how these parasites may allow us to better understand societies and learn more about the evolution and functioning of insect societies. We highlight three main features of these social parasite–host systems—namely, close phylogenetic relationships, strong selective pressures arising from coevolution and multiple independent origins—that make inquiline social parasites particularly suited for this aim; we propose a conceptual comparative framework that considers trait losses, gains and modifications in social parasite–host systems. We give examples of how this framework can reveal the more elusive secrets of sociality by focusing on two cornerstones of sociality: communication and reproductive division of labour. Together with social parasites in other taxonomic groups, such as cuckoos in birds, social parasitism has a great potential to reveal the mechanisms and evolution of complex social groups. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The coevolutionary biology of brood parasitism: from mechanism to pattern’.

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The evolution of extreme altruism and inequality in insect societies

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2009.0129 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 364 (1533) ◽

pp. 3169-3179 ◽

Cited By ~ 44

Author(s):

Francis L. W. Ratnieks ◽

Heikki Helanterä

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Inclusive Fitness ◽

Phylogenetic Analyses ◽

Stingless Bee ◽

Insect Societies ◽

Honeybee Colony ◽

Evolution Of Eusociality ◽

Two Stages ◽

Food Workers ◽

Social Coercion

In eusocial organisms, some individuals specialize in reproduction and others in altruistic helping. The evolution of eusociality is, therefore, also the evolution of remarkable inequality. For example, a colony of honeybees ( Apis mellifera ) may contain 50 000 females all of whom can lay eggs. But 100 per cent of the females and 99.9 per cent of the males are offspring of the queen. How did such extremes evolve? Phylogenetic analyses show that high relatedness was almost certainly necessary for the origin of eusociality. However, even the highest family levels of kinship are insufficient to cause the extreme inequality seen in e.g. honeybees via ‘voluntary altruism’. ‘Enforced altruism’ is needed, i.e. social pressures that deter individuals from attempting to reproduce. Coercion acts at two stages in an individual's life cycle. Queens are typically larger so larvae can be coerced into developing into workers by being given less food. Workers are coerced into working by ‘policing’, in which workers or the queen eat worker-laid eggs or aggress fertile workers. In some cases, individuals rebel, such as when stingless bee larvae develop into dwarf queens. The incentive to rebel is strong as an individual is the most closely related to its own offspring. However, because individuals gain inclusive fitness by rearing relatives, there is also a strong incentive to ‘acquiesce’ to social coercion. In a queenright honeybee colony, the policing of worker-laid eggs is very effective, which results in most workers working instead of attempting to reproduce. Thus, extreme altruism is due to both kinship and coercion. Altruism is frequently seen as a Darwinian puzzle but was not a puzzle that troubled Darwin. Darwin saw his difficulty in explaining how individuals that did not reproduce could evolve, given that natural selection was based on the accumulation of small heritable changes. The recognition that altruism is an evolutionary puzzle, and the solution was to wait another 100 years for William Hamilton.

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