Looking beyond the flowers: associations of stingless bees with sap-sucking insects

Author(s)

dos Santos, Charles Fernando ^[1] ; Halinski, Rosana ^[1] ; de Souza dos Santos, Patrick Douglas ^{[1, 2]} ; Almeida, Eduardo A. B. ^[3] ; Blochtein, Betina ^[1]

Affiliation

^[1] Pontificia Univ Catolica Rio Grande do Sul, Escola Ciencias, Ave Ipiranga 6681, BR-90619900 Porto Alegre, RS - Brazil

^[2] Univ Sao Paulo, Dept Genet, Lab Biol Desenvolvimento Abelhas, Fac Filosofia Ciencias & Letras Ribeirao Preto, Ave Bandeirantes 3-900, BR-14040901 Ribeirao Preto, SP - Brazil

^[3] Univ Sao Paulo, Lab Biol Comparada & Abelhas, Dept Biol, Fac Filosofia Ciencias & Letras Ribeirao Preto, BR-14040901 Ribeirao Preto, SP - Brazil

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: NATURWISSENSCHAFTEN; v. 106, n. 3-4 APR 2019.
• Web of Science Citations: 0

Abstract

The main sources of food for stingless bees are the nectar and pollen harvested from flowers, whereas one important kind of nesting material (i.e. wax) is produced by their own abdominal glands. Stingless bees can, nonetheless, obtain alternative resources of food and wax from exudates released by sap-sucking insects as honeydew and waxy cover, respectively. To date, there are no comprehensive studies investigating how diversified and structured the network interactions between stingless bees and sap-sucking insects are. Here, we conducted a survey of the data on relationship between stingless bees and sap-sucking insects to evaluate: (1) which resources are collected by which stingless bee species; (2) how diverse the interaction network is, using species degree and specialisation index as a proxy; and if (3) there would be any phylogenetic signal in the species degree and specialisation indices. Our findings demonstrate that approximately 21 stingless bee species like Trigona spp. and Oxytrigona spp. have been observed interacting with 11 sap-sucking species, among which Aethalion reticulatum is the main partner. From ca. 50 records, Brazil is the country with most observations (n=38) of this type of ecological interaction. We found also that stingless bees harvest fivefold more honeydew than waxy covers on sap-sucking insects. However, we did not find any phylogenetic signal for the occurrence of this interaction, considering species degree and specialisation indices, suggesting that both traits apparently evolved independently among stingless bee species. We suggest that specific ecological demands may drive this opportunistic behaviour exhibited by stingless bees, because major sources of food are obtained from flowers and these bees produce their own wax. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 11/09477-9 - Taxonomy, phylogeny, biogeography, and evolution of Neopasiphaeinae bees (Hymenoptera: Colletidae) using molecular and morphological data
• Grantee: Eduardo Andrade Botelho de Almeida
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Young Investigators Grants