Information flow and organization of stingless bee foraging

Abstract

Stingless bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponini) live in populous permanent colonies and face the same problem as other foraging social insects: how to coordinate the worker's actions and respond to the spatio-temporal uncertainties of food availability in their habitat. Here we review the (social) information used by individual foragers and how organized collective foraging emerges from the individual actions. We also address intra- and interspecific competition for food and the impact of the African honey bee on stingless bee collective foraging.