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First published online October 7, 2005
Journal of Experimental Biology 208, 3933-3943 (2005)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2005
doi: 10.1242/jeb.01792

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Effect of food quality, distance and height on thoracic temperature in the stingless bee Melipona panamica

James C. Nieh^* and Daniel Sánchez

Division of Biological Sciences, Section of Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution, University of California San Diego, MC#0116, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0116, USA

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: jnieh{at}ucsd.edu)

Accepted 14 August 2005

Stingless bees (Apidae, Meliponini) can recruit nestmates to good food sources. We present the first data showing that recruiting meliponine foragers at feeders and inside nests regulate their thoracic temperature according to net food profitability. Using infrared thermography, we found that Melipona panamica foragers elevated their thoracic temperature at profitable food sources (higher sucrose concentration, closer to the nest). At food sources, there is an increase of approximately 0.9°C in thoracic temperature (T_th) per 1 mol l^–1 increase in sucrose concentration (at 20 m distance from nest: 1 mol l^–1 sucrose concentration, T_th=36.6±0.8°C, T_a=31.3±0.5°C; 2.5 mol l^–1 sucrose concentration, T_th=36.9±0.6°C, T_a=29.9±0.2°C). Inside the nest, the difference between thoracic temperature T_th and ambient air temperature T_a (T_nest) decreases by 0.4°C with each 100 m increase in feeder-to-nest distance and increases by 0.1°C per 1 mol l^–1 increase in sucrose concentration. The T_th of returning foragers was significantly higher at all tested sucrose concentrations (1.0–2.5 mol l^–1 sucrose concentration) and distances (25–437 m) as compared to T_a (at 2.5 mol l^–1 sucrose concentration: 25 m distance from nest, intranidal T_th=30.2±1.3°C, T_a=24.8±0.7°C; 437 m distance from nest, intranidal T_th=28.6±1.7°C, T_nest=25.4±1.4°C). For highly profitable food sources (2.5 mol l^–1 sucrose concentration and 100 m from the nest), forager T_th was slightly higher than that of randomly chosen control bees inside the nest.

Key words: thermoregulation, thoracic temperature, foraging, recruitment, meliponine, stingless bee, Melipona panamica

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