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Title of Journal: Apidologie

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Abbravation: Apidologie

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Springer Paris

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DOI

10.1007/bf02320452

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1297-9678

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In vitro rearing of stingless bee queens and their

Authors: Charles Fernando dos Santos Patrick Douglas de Souza dos Santos Betina Blochtein
Publish Date: 2015/10/19
Volume: 47, Issue: 4, Pages: 539-547
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Abstract

The in vitro rearing of queen bees can improve the management and conservation of pollinator insects Here we have developed an in vitro queenrearing protocol for Plebeia droryana Apidae Meliponini Firstly we evaluated the amount of food offered naturally to P droryana queen larvae After we grafted P droryana larvae onto acrylic plates which were kept in constant darkness at 25 °C and different relative humidity along larval development We also compared intertegular distance of P droryana queens reared in vitro and naturally We then tested whether queens reared in vitro would be accepted into new colonies with older and/ or callow workers We found that P droryana larvae developed into queens if fed with 66 μL of larval food The survival rate of P droryana queens was  75  The queens reared in vitro are similar in size to naturally produced ones Finally colonies only containing callow workers are more likely to accept queens reared in vitro This queenrearing technique may improve beekeeping practices in the Neotropical RegionBees provide an important ecological service as the main pollinators of wild plants and crops Kevan and Baker 1983 Klein et al 2007 However in current years native bee populations have declined worldwide threatening this pollination service Freitas et al 2009 Potts et al 2010 The causes of this decline may include habitat loss and/or fragmentation intense use of agrochemicals pathogens alien bee species and climate change Freitas et al 2009 Potts et al 2010 These pressures may well lead to a global deficit in the availability of pollinators for food production even of honeybees Apis mellifera Linnaeus Aizen and Harder 2009Thus this concern becomes even more serious because the main bee species globally responsible for agricultural pollination A mellifera is suffering increasing death of its colonies due to colony collapse disorder VanEngelsdorp et al 2009 Honeybees therefore cannot be relied on in the future as the most effective pollinators of many crops throughout the planet and we shall have to depend much more on native bee species for effective pollination Freitas et al 2009 Garibaldi et al 2013 Witter et al 2015Further honeybees few bee species can be traditionally managed in hives as bumblebees and stingless bees or elsewhere solitary bees eg Freitas and Pereira 2004 CortopassiLaurino et al 2006 Velthuis and van Doorn 2006 albeit there are about 20000 bee species worldwide Michener 2007 In the Neotropical Region the stingless bees Apidae Meliponini are an important group of highly eusocial bees that have been identified as a viable alternative which may help to mitigate the pollination deficit in many natural and crop systems Freitas et al 2009 Garibaldi et al 2013The rearing of stingless bees in hives meliponiculture is a highly sustainable activity because beekeepers can work near native forests as well as help conserve endemic bee species in order to obtain bees’ products pollen honey propolis and promote effective agricultural pollination CortopassiLaurino et al 2006 Slaa et al 2006 Contrera et al 2011 Stingless bees can add high economic value to crops Giannini et al 2015 They have been identified as effective pollinators of fruit vegetables and seed crops such as tomato coffee strawberry citrus avocado onion cucumber and canola Heard 1999 Slaa et al 2006 Witter et al 2015Nevertheless meliponiculture faces the problem of multiplying hives from core colonies which often hold only a few virgin queens except Melipona Illiger geuns for successful colony multiplication ImperatrizFonseca and Zucchi 1995 Therefore the management and propagation of stingless bee colonies may be greatly compromised because there are not sufficient queens to head new colonies Jaffé et al 2015 Thus the mass rearing of virgin queens may offer a means to overcome the low natural production of virgin queens in most stingless bee genera and therefore increase the number of new colonies that can be used to restore adequate pollination in natural ecosystems or crops CortopassiLaurino et al 2006 Contrera et al 2011 Jaffé et al 2015Queenrearing techniques for stingless bees are based mainly on the overfeeding of female larvae in vitro Baptistella et al 2012 Menezes et al 2013 since castes determination system in most stingless bee genera depends mainly on trophic factors Darchen and DelageDarchen 1971 Female larvae destined to become queens receive more larval food in the bigger royal cells than female larvae destined to become workers reared in smaller brood cells Darchen and DelageDarchen 1971


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