Stingless bees use terpenes as olfactory cues to find resin sources

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Stingless bees use terpenes as olfactory cues to find resin sources. / Leonhardt, Sara; Zeilhofer, S.; Blüthgen, Nico et al.
In: Chemical Senses, Vol. 35, No. 7, 09.2010, p. 603-611.

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

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Leonhardt S, Zeilhofer S, Blüthgen N, Schmitt T. Stingless bees use terpenes as olfactory cues to find resin sources. Chemical Senses. 2010 Sept;35(7):603-611. doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjq058

Bibtex

@article{14bb5d562a9949348bc6ad2db406e0e1,
title = "Stingless bees use terpenes as olfactory cues to find resin sources",
abstract = "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. ",
keywords = "Ecosystems Research, olfactory cues , terpenes, stingless bees, resin",
author = "Sara Leonhardt and S. Zeilhofer and Nico Bl{\"u}thgen and Thomas Schmitt",
year = "2010",
month = sep,
doi = "10.1093/chemse/bjq058",
language = "English",
volume = "35",
pages = "603--611",
journal = "Chemical Senses",
issn = "0379-864X",
publisher = "Oxford University Press",
number = "7",

}

RIS

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 -

DOI