Meeting Abstract

130.2  Tuesday, Jan. 7 13:45  Correlates of miniaturization: Scaling of morphology and behavioral repertoires of Neotropical stingless bees DUELL, M*; ROUBIK, D; WCISLO, W; HARRISON, JF; SMITH, BH; Arizona State University; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute; Arizona State University; Arizona State University meduell@asu.edu

When a species evolves extremely small body size with respect to close relatives, is said to be miniaturized. This condition is pervasive throughout the Animal kingdom but we do not understand the physiological mechanisms responsible or their effects on behavioral repertoires. Stingless bees, the Meliponini, are a tropical group in which miniaturization has evolved in 11 separate genera with species ranging in size over three orders of magnitude. We observed foraging behaviors of over 15 species of Neotropical stingless bees in the Panama and Colon provinces of the Republic of Panama before collecting them and removing their brains to determine if major differences in foraging regimes correlate with body size, head size, and brain structure. Tiny bees had relatively larger heads but smaller thoraxes and abdomens relative to larger bees. One interpretation of these data is that miniaturized bees may over-invest in the brain to maintain behavioral capacity, at the expense of flight and transport capacities. We found that tiny bees and large bees each have some unique behaviors but that general foraging strategies were similar, suggesting that miniaturized stingless bees might not be behaviorally limited by the physiology of small size in terms of general foraging behavior. This research was funded through Arizona State University and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.