7. Floral Resource Utilization by Stingless Bees (Apidae, Meliponini)

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Name /sv04/24167_u07 10/27/04 05:27PM Plate # 0-Composite pg 84 # 12 84 T. Nagamitsu and T. Inoue 30 20 10 A) T. canifrons Sucrose production rate (mg/h) No. of bees 0 30 20 T. collina 10 T. apicalis 0 30 20 10 0 5 B) C) D) T. itama T. terminata T. nitidiventris T. ventralis 0 0 6 9 12 15 18 Time in day Figure 7.6. Diurnal changes in flower visits by seven Trigona and nectar secretion in a canopy tree, Santiria laevigata. Flower visits (N bees collected in 10 min at flowers) of (A) aggressive T. canifrons, (B) non-aggressive Heterotrigona species, and (C) nonaggressive Lepidotrigona species (after Nagamitsu and Inoue 1997b). 5 Sucrose standing crop (mg) gressive behavior, interference competition, and time of the first arrival at honey-water feeders located on the towers in LHNP (Nagamitsu and Inoue 1997b). Six Trigona and one honeybee, Apis koschevnikovi, frequently visited the feeders. Trigona fimbriata, T. apicalis, and T. melina were aggressive toward others. Trigona fimbriata dominated T. apicalis and T. melina, because it won the physical battles, and its interference more effectively reduced honeybee visits than did that of the other two species. Trigona ventralis, T. laeviceps and T. melanocephala were not aggressive. Visits by Trigona ventralis were reduced less after encounters with the aggressive species than T. laeviceps and T. melanocephala. Rank of the aggressive dominance based on these findings 1 0 1
Name /sv04/24167_u07 10/27/04 05:27PM Plate # 0-Composite pg 85 # 13 7. Floral Resource Utilization by Stingless Bees 85 tended to be negatively correlated with rank of the first arrival at the feeders (see Fig. 7.7). This negative correlation suggests a trade-off between searching and defensive abilities of Trigona in LHNP. Sympatric ant species also have such a trade-off (Fellers 1987; Holway 1999). Both ant and stingless bee workers forage from their nest by communicating food locations to nest mates and bring food to their nest. If the number of experienced foragers is limited, investment of the foragers in the defense of resources that have been found already reduces the number of foragers assigned to search for new resources. Such allocation of workers may cause the trade-off between search and defense in foraging tasks. 7.5 Responses to General Flowering General flowering increases the number of flowering species in a forest, the number of flowering plants of each species, and the amount of floral resources of each plant (Sakai et al. 1999c). In LHNP, general flowering occurred in 1992, 1996, 1997, and 1998. These events provided an opportunity to investigate responses of the populations and behavior of stingless bees to large fluctuation of floral resources. Floral resources are likely to limit nest density of the aggressive Trigona in Costa Rica and Sabah (Hubbell and Johnson 1977; Eltz et al. 2002). If this were T. fimbriata Dominance rank T. melina T. apicalis A. koschevnikovi T. ventralis T. laeviceps T. melanocephala Discovery rank Figure 7.7. Trade-off between search and defense for Trigona (closed circles) and a honeybee Apis koschenvikovi (open circle). Searching ability is ranked by time of the first arrival at feeders. Defending ability is ranked based on aggressive behavior and interference competition at feeders. 1 0 1
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7. Floral Resource Utilization by Stingless Bees (Apidae, Meliponini)

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