Pulsed mass recruitment by a stingless bee, Trigona hyalinata
Published Web Location
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rspb.2003.2486?casa_token=GXotbJ-mjq8AAAAA:hRZAJUApNyyJUGiieF1bsUBGZ6wOxJDOlqYhjQKAYJ2UwuE3SgocG_QlYWcRjnlKxCBbOHQnTgGc3gAbstract
Research on bee communication has focused on the ability of the highly social bees, stingless bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponini) and honeybees (Apidae, Apini), to communicate food location to nest-mates. Honeybees can communicate food location through the famous waggle dance. Stingless bees are closely related to honeybees and communicate food location through a variety of different mechanisms, many of which are poorly understood. We show that a stingless bee, Trigona hyalinata, uses a pulsed mass-recruitment system that is highly focused in time and space. Foragers produced an ephemeral, polarized, odour trail consisting of mandibular gland secretions. Surprisingly, the odour trail extended only a short distance away from the food source, instead of providing a complete trail between the nest and the food source (as has been described for other stingless bees). This abbreviated trail may represent an intermediate strategy between full-trail marking, found in some stingless bees, and odour marking of the food alone, found in stingless bees and honeybees.
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