Foraging and drifting patterns of the highly eusocial neotropical stingless bee Melipona fasciculata assessed by radio-frequency identification tags

Original dataset as well as the R script used to analyse the data Abstract Bees play a key role in ecosystem services as the main pollinators of numerous flowering plants. Studying factors influencing their foraging behaviour is relevant not only to understand their biology, but also how populations might respond to changes in their habitat and to the climate. Here, we used radio-frequency identification tags to monitor the foraging behaviour of the neotropical stingless bee Melipona fasciculata with special interest in drifting patterns i.e., when a forager drifts into a foreign nest. In addition, we collected meteorological data to study how abiotic factors affect bees’ activity and behaviour. Our results show that only 35 % of bees never drifted to another hive nearby, and that factors such as temperature, humidity and solar irradiation affected the bees drifting rates and/or foraging activity. Moreover, we tested whether drifting levels would decrease after marking the nest entrances with different patterns. However, contrary to our predictions, there was an increase in the proportion of drifting, which could indicate factors other than orientation mistakes playing a role in this behaviour. Overall, our results demonstrate how managed bee populations are affected by both nearby hives and climate factors, offering insights on their biology and potential commercial application as crop pollinators. doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.708178/

本研究附带原始数据集及用于数据分析的R脚本。蜜蜂作为众多显花植物的主要传粉者，在生态系统服务中发挥着关键作用。对其觅食行为影响因素的研究，不仅有助于理解其生物学特性，也可为解析种群如何响应栖息地变化与气候波动提供科学依据。本研究采用射频识别（radio-frequency identification）标签，对新热带无刺蜂Melipona fasciculata的觅食行为进行监测，重点关注其归巢漂移行为——即觅食蜂误入异群蜂巢的现象。此外，我们收集了气象数据以探究非生物因子对蜜蜂活动与行为的影响。研究结果表明，仅有35%的蜜蜂从未误入邻近的其他蜂箱；温度、湿度与太阳辐射等因子会对蜜蜂的漂移率及觅食活动产生显著影响。我们还测试了通过在巢门设置不同图案标记以降低漂移水平的效果，但与预期相反，漂移比例反而升高，这提示该行为的驱动机制可能包含定向失误以外的其他因素。总体而言，本研究结果阐明了人工饲养的蜂群如何受到邻近蜂箱与气候因子的共同影响，为理解该蜂类的生物学特性及其作为作物传粉者的潜在商业化应用提供了重要参考。DOI：10.3389/fevo.2021.708178