Colony foraging allocation is finely tuned to food distance and sweetness even close to a bee colony |
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| Authors: | Adolfo León Carlos Arias‐Castro Martha A Rodríguez‐Mendiola Rocío Meza‐Gordillo Federico A Gutiérrez‐Miceli James C Nieh |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Departamento de Estudios de Posgrado e Investigación (DEPI), Instituto Tecnológico de Tlajomulco (ITT), Jalisco, México;2. Departamento de Estudios de Posgrado e Investigación (DEPI), Instituto Tecnológico de Tuxtla Guiérrez (ITTG), Chiapas, México;3. University of California at San Diego, Section of Ecology, Behavior and Evolution, Division of Biological Sciences, La Jolla, California, USA |
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| Abstract: | Social bee colonies can allocate their foraging resources over a large spatial scale, but how they allocate foraging on a small scale near the colony is unclear and can have implications for understanding colony decision‐making and the pollination services provided. Using a mass‐foraging stingless bee, Scaptotrigona pectoralis (Dalla Torre) (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini), we show that colonies will forage near their nests and allocate their foraging labor on a very fine spatial scale at an array of food sources placed close to the colony. We counted the foragers that a colony allocated to each of nine feeders containing 1.0, 1.5, or 2.0 M sucrose solution 31, 43, and 55% sucrose (wt/wt), respectively] at distances of 10, 15, and 20 m from the nest. A significantly greater number of foragers (2.6–5.3 fold greater) visited feeders placed 10 vs. 20 m away from the colony. Foraging allocation also corresponded to food quality. At the 10‐m feeders, 4.9‐fold more foragers visited 2.0 M as compared to 1.0 M sucrose feeders. Colony forager allocation thus responded to both differences in food distance and quality even when the travel cost was negligible compared to normal colony foraging distances (10 m vs. an estimated 800–1 710 m). For a nearby floral patch, this could result in unequal floral visitation and pollination. |
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| Keywords: | recruitment stingless bees Meliponini sugar concentration
Scaptotrigona pectoralis
Hymenoptera Apidae |
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