Foraging loads of stingless bees and utilisation of stored nectar for pollen harvesting
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In: Apidologie, Vol. 38, No. 2, 2007, p. 125-135.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Foraging loads of stingless bees and utilisation of stored nectar for pollen harvesting
AU - Leonhardt, Sara
AU - Dworschak, Kai
AU - Eltz, Thomas
AU - Blüthgen, Nico
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - We compared nectar, pollen and resin loads of individual workers among colonies from six Trigona species in Sabah, Borneo. Individual bees rarely collected large amounts of both nectar and pollen during the same foraging trip. Instead, comparison of crop contents across departing, flower-visiting, andreturning bees suggests that pollen-collecting workers often carried highly concentrated nectar in their crop upon nest departure. During their foraging trip, this crop nectar volume decreased progressively until crops were largely empty when they returned to their nest. Individually marked pollen foragers carried highly concentrated nectar when they left their nest, while crops and corbiculae from marked nectar foragers were empty upon departure. We suggest that a large proportion of previously stored and highly concentratednectar may be required for pollen adhesion to corbiculae and/or serve as fuel during foraging on nectarpoor flowers.
AB - We compared nectar, pollen and resin loads of individual workers among colonies from six Trigona species in Sabah, Borneo. Individual bees rarely collected large amounts of both nectar and pollen during the same foraging trip. Instead, comparison of crop contents across departing, flower-visiting, andreturning bees suggests that pollen-collecting workers often carried highly concentrated nectar in their crop upon nest departure. During their foraging trip, this crop nectar volume decreased progressively until crops were largely empty when they returned to their nest. Individually marked pollen foragers carried highly concentrated nectar when they left their nest, while crops and corbiculae from marked nectar foragers were empty upon departure. We suggest that a large proportion of previously stored and highly concentratednectar may be required for pollen adhesion to corbiculae and/or serve as fuel during foraging on nectarpoor flowers.
KW - Ecosystems Research
KW - foraging behaviour
KW - Trigona
KW - resin
KW - pollen load
KW - nectar
KW - Biology
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/50d99410-fc2c-3072-92e5-eb6e2ad267a5/
U2 - 10.1051/apido:2006059
DO - 10.1051/apido:2006059
M3 - Journal articles
VL - 38
SP - 125
EP - 135
JO - Apidologie
JF - Apidologie
SN - 0044-8435
IS - 2
ER -