Stingless bees use terpenes as olfactory cues to find resin sources
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In: Chemical Senses, Vol. 35, No. 7, 09.2010, p. 603-611.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Stingless bees use terpenes as olfactory cues to find resin sources
AU - Leonhardt, Sara
AU - Zeilhofer, S.
AU - Blüthgen, Nico
AU - Schmitt, Thomas
PY - 2010/9
Y1 - 2010/9
N2 - Insects largely rely on olfactory cues when seeking and judging information on nests, partners, or resources. Bees are known to use volatile compounds—besides visual cues—to find flowers suitable for pollen and nectar collection. Tropical stingless bees additionally collect large amounts of plant resins for nest construction, nest maintenance, nest defense, and to derive chemical constituents for their cuticular profiles. We here demonstrate that stingless bees of Borneo also use olfactory cues to find tree resins. They rely on volatile mono- and sesquiterpenes to locate or recognize known resin sources. Moreover, by modifying resin extracts, we found that stingless bees do not use the entire resin bouquet but relative proportions of several terpenes. In doing so, the bees are able to learn specific tree resin profiles and distinguish between tree species and partly even tree individuals.
AB - Insects largely rely on olfactory cues when seeking and judging information on nests, partners, or resources. Bees are known to use volatile compounds—besides visual cues—to find flowers suitable for pollen and nectar collection. Tropical stingless bees additionally collect large amounts of plant resins for nest construction, nest maintenance, nest defense, and to derive chemical constituents for their cuticular profiles. We here demonstrate that stingless bees of Borneo also use olfactory cues to find tree resins. They rely on volatile mono- and sesquiterpenes to locate or recognize known resin sources. Moreover, by modifying resin extracts, we found that stingless bees do not use the entire resin bouquet but relative proportions of several terpenes. In doing so, the bees are able to learn specific tree resin profiles and distinguish between tree species and partly even tree individuals.
KW - Ecosystems Research
KW - olfactory cues
KW - terpenes
KW - stingless bees
KW - resin
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77955872455&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/chemse/bjq058
DO - 10.1093/chemse/bjq058
M3 - Journal articles
VL - 35
SP - 603
EP - 611
JO - Chemical Senses
JF - Chemical Senses
SN - 0379-864X
IS - 7
ER -