| Title: | An alien in the group: eusocial male bees sharing nonspecific reproductive aggregations |
| Author(s): | Dos Santos CF; Ferreira-Caliman MJ; Nascimento FS; |
| Address: | "Departamento de Biodiversidade e Ecologia, Faculdade de Biociencias, Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio Grande do Sul, Avenida Ipiranga, 6681, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil charles.santos@pucrs.br. Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciencias e Letras de Ribeirao Preto, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Avenida Bandeirantes, 3900; Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo, Brazil" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1536-2442 (Electronic) 1536-2442 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Sexual selection predicts that individuals competing for access to sexual partners should maximize their chances of mating by looking for sites where the chances of finding partners are more likely to occur. However, males of stingless bees have been observed sharing nonspecific reproductive aggregations. This uncommon behavior appears to confer no obvious increase of individual fitness. It has been suggested that this reproductive strategy is due to the similarity between male odors common to different stingless bee species. Cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) are candidate odors of interest because their nonvolatile pheromone nature allows them to play an important role in sexual behavior and species recognition. Here, we review the literature to evaluate whether any phylogenetic patterns exist among male stingless bees that aggregate with closely or distantly related species. We also compared the CHC profiles of males of Neotropical stingless bee species (Plebeia sp. Schwarz, Trigona spinipes (F.), Tetragona clavipes (F.), Nannotrigona testaceicornis (Lepeletier), Scaptotrigona aff. depilis (Moure), Tetragonisca angustula (Latreille), and Melipona subnitida (Ducke) to reveal any chemical similarities among their male odors. We found males of 21 stingless bee species involved in interspecific interactions mainly from Neotropical and Indo-Malayan/Australasian regions. Alien males did not necessarily visit host aggregations of closely related species. Furthermore, the CHC profiles of different studied species were very distinct from each other and do not overlapped at all. It is unclear yet why this apparently nonadaptive behavior carried out by some stingless bee males" |
| Keywords: | "Animals Bees/chemistry/*physiology Hydrocarbons/chemistry Male Odorants Pheromones/chemistry Phylogeny Sexual Behavior, Animal Species Specificity Apidae Behavior Chemical Ecology Hymenoptera;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineDos Santos, C F Ferreira-Caliman, M J Nascimento, F S eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Review 2015/11/01 J Insect Sci. 2015 Oct 30; 15(1):157. doi: 10.1093/jisesa/iev107. Print 2015" |
