Does caffeinated forage affect foraging and recruitment in neotropical stingless bees?

• Grant number: 18/01266-8
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Visiting Researcher Grant - International
• Start date: February 27, 2018
• End date: March 27, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Animal Behavior
• Principal Investigator: Fábio Santos do Nascimento
• Grantee: Fábio Santos do Nascimento
• Visiting researcher: Christoph Grüter
• Visiting researcher institution: Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Germany
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Plants attract pollinators by providing food rewards. In turn, they receive visits that facilitate plant reproduction through the transfer of pollen by the pollinators. Since pollinators such as bees can use pollen and nectar either for themselves or to feed the brood, this relationship between plants and pollinators usually benefits both parties. However, there are cases where the interests of pollinators and plants do not align, leading to cheating on both sides. The proposed project studies an important aspect of this question by investigating the behavioral response of stingless bee foragers to food sources containing natural quantities of caffeine, an active secondary compound whose main function is to reduce leaf damage by herbivores. The presence of caffeine could even lead to detrimental effects on colonies as it might cause foragers to focus their foraging effort on low quality nectar sources containing caffeine (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

PENG, TIANFEI; SEGERS, FRANCISCA H. I. D.; NASCIMENTO, FABIO; GRUETER, CHRISTOPH. Resource profitability, but not caffeine, affects individual and collective foraging in the stingless bee Plebeia droryana. Journal of Experimental Biology, v. 222, n. 10, MAY 2019. (18/01266-8)