Nerol: An alarm substance of the stingless bee, Trigona fulviventris (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Abstract

Bees of the genus Trigona and subgenus Trigona possess volatile materials in their mandibular glands, used as alarm substances and as marking pheromones. Heads of workers of Trigona fulviventris were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The two major volatile components were nerol (∼ 50%), and octyl caproate (∼ 20%). Relative to other substances tested at a Costa Rican nest, treatments containing 20 μg of nerol attracted T. fulviventris, depressed numbers of bees leaving the nest by about 50%, and elicited wing vibration and biting. The responses were similar to those obtained with the contents of one worker head. Attraction and biting were also seen in response to captures of colony members by assassin bugs (Apiomerus pictipes) outside a nest entrance; one bee responded in about 15% of the captures. This alarm behavior, although weak, is of interest since it was thought that T. fulviventris was unusual for its subgenus in its lack of nest defense behaviors. © 1982 Plenum Publishing Corporation.