Recruitment behavior in stingless bees, Melipona scutellaris and M. quadrifasciata. II. Possible mechanisms of communication

Abstract

To find out what foragers of the stingless bees Melipona scutellaris and M. quadrifasciata actually do while recruiting nestmates to a food source we videotaped their behavior in the nest and simultaneously recorded the sounds and vibrations produced by them when returning from a rich food source. Neither temporal nor spectral characteristics of the sounds and vibrations correlated significantly with distance or direction to the food. Foragers motivated recruits to search for food at random by a 'jostling run'. The number of jostles by a forager correlates with the number of collecting bees. There was no correlation between the movements of a returning forager and either distance or direction to the feeder. 'Zigzag flights', guiding flights and scent marking of foragers were excluded as a way to communicate the location of the food source. Aside from the indication of the mere existence of a food source the mechanisms by which foragers communicate its location are still obscure.