Dissertation Research: Mechanisms of Food Recruitment

P.I. Seeley和Nieh NSF博士论文改进基金IBN-9623336：无刺蜜蜂的食物招募机制，Melipona panamica。大型群居昆虫群体需要大量的食物摄入，但通常生活在食物来源广泛分散的竞争环境中。面对这些限制，膜翅目中许多高度群居的昆虫已经进化出了为新发现的饲料来源带来额外配偶（新兵）的机制。无刺蜜蜂交流食物位置的机制多种多样，令人着迷，但人们对其了解甚少。像许多蚂蚁一样，有几个属的无刺蜜蜂直接跟随觅食者去觅食（领航）或留下气味痕迹，然后被新兵跟随。像蜜蜂一样，无刺蜂属的蜜蜂也可以用声音来传达与食物来源的距离。最近的数据表明，巴拿马墨利波纳的觅食者可以在不使用气味痕迹的情况下招募到特定的距离、方向和树冠高度。我们的目标是了解这些蜜蜂是如何招募到一个特定的三维坐标集合的。招募觅食者时会在巢内进行一系列有趣的旋转动作和脉冲声。觅食者似乎也会在巢外传达食物来源的方向，并在食物地点放置一种未知的信息素，以确定当地的方向。实际机制可能为解决食物来源位置的交流问题提供新的解决方案，并将增加我们对昆虫社会中复杂的交流机制的理解。

Abstract Proposal #9623336 P.I. Seeley and Nieh NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant IBN-9623336: Mechanisms of food recruitment in a stingless bee, Melipona panamica. Large Social insect colonies require a considerable food intake, yet usually live in competitive environments in which food sources are widely dispersed. Faced with these constraints, many highly social insects in the family Hymenoptera have evolved mechanisms to bring additional nestmates (recruits) to a newly discovered feed source. The mechanisms employed by stingless bees to communicate food location are diverse and fascinating, yet poorly understood. Like many ants, stingless bees in several genera directly follow foragers to feed source (piloting) or lay scent trails followed by recruits. Like honey bees, stingless bees in the genus Melipona may use sounds to communicate the distance to the food source. Recent data indicate that Melipona panamica foragers can recruit to a specific distance, direction and canopy level without using scent trails. Our goal is to understand how these bees recruit to a specific 3 dimensional set of coordinates. Recruiting foragers perform an intriguing sequence of spinning movements and pulsed sounds inside the nest. Foragers also appear to communicate the food source s direction outside the nest and deposit an unidentified pheromone at the food site for local orientation. The actual mechanisms may offer a novel solution to the problem of communicating food source location and will increase our understanding of complex mechanisms of communication in insect societies.