Biologia reprodutiva de rainhas e machos de Tetragonisca angustula (Hymenoptera: Meliponini) / Reproductive biology of the queens and males of Tetragonisca angustula (Hymenoptera: Meliponini)

AUTOR(ES)
FONTE

IBICT - Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia

DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

15/08/2012

RESUMO

The stingless bees (Hymenoptera: Meliponini)present a haplodiploid sex determination system with complementary sex determination in a single locus. Such a system is a large genetic load for the group and thus the genetic diversity of male\ s aggregations near the nests is essential to minimize the chances of inbreeding. The interactions among the stingless bees nestmates are diverse and chemical compounds mediate most. The chemical communication is higher among the queens and their workers, but chemicals are also important for mating of queens. As the amount of males that aggregate near the nests with gynes is very large, these events allow us to collect and evaluate a local representation of males and thus to analyze certain characters that structure these populations. Thus, this study aimed to: (1) chemically analyzing virgin and physogastric queens of Tetragonisca angustula, (2) analyze the chemical profile of males inside and outside their nests, (3) analyze the genetic diversity of the aggregations of males, how many colonies contribute with males to these aggregations and to assess the relatedness between queens and males, (4) evaluate the potential dispersion of males from their nests to aggregations, (5) analyze morphometrically males composing aggregates of different locations. Techniques for rearing virgin queens in vitro and installation of trap-nests were used to optimize the sampling of individuals. Our results indicate that virgin queens and physogastric queens are chemically distinct. Although both present volatile compounds sexually attractive to males, virgin queens have exclusively nerol and ethyl octadecenoate in their cephalic extracts and Dufour\ s glands, respectively. Males from both types(living inside and outside their nests) are chemically similar, possessing several carboxylic acids in their cephalic extracts. About 83 colonies contributed for five aggregations with 376 males. On average, they moved ± 612 meters from their nest of origin to aggregations. These aggregations are genetically very similar to each other, without forming discrete units. Only 3.45% of the males are related to queens. Finally, populations of males of three different locations could be morphometrically separated with good accuracy. We conclude that there is chemical communication mediating the interaction male-queen. The number of colonies in one area contributes to the large number of individuals and the genetic diversity of the aggregations. Individuals in these aggregations are not related and can originate from distant colonies. The morphometry is useful to group the males from different localities

ASSUNTO(S)

agregações reprodutivas feromônios fundação de ninhos glands glândulas marcadores moleculares microsatellites microssatélites molecular markers morfometria morphometry nest foundation pheromones reproductive aggregations

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