Meeting Abstract
Nesting social groups often evolve strong defensive strategies, epitomized by the suicidal defenders of honey bees. Recent studies have found that Tetragonisca angustula, a small Neotropical stingless bee, employs a specialized soldier caste to defend its nest from raids by other stingless bees. In response to raiders, T. angustula soldiers attack and attempt to neutralize any intruder by locking onto them with their powerful jaws. This causes the raider to fall to the ground- immobilized by the defenders. The act of biting is thought to result in the death of the attached defenders, leading to suggestions that these guards are suicidal. In this study, we found that T. angustula defenders release and fly away when the raider stops moving (or if the point of attachment is severed); thus, these are not suicidal defenders. We also showed that the defensive response of T. angustula is relatively generalized towards the four stingless bee species, consistent with a system of flexible threat determination. This species must defend broadly and regularly against a wide array of raiding species; and their guarding behaviors permit effective nest defense while preserving the colony’s population.
