title: High precision during food recruitment of experienced (reactivated) foragers in the stingless bee Scaptotrigona mexicana (Apidae, Meliponini).
abstract: Several studies have examined the existence of recruitment communication mechanisms in stingless bees. However, the spatial accuracy of location-specific recruitment has not been examined. Moreover, the location-specific recruitment of reactivated foragers, i.e., foragers that have previously experienced the same food source at a different location and time, has not been explicitly examined. However, such foragers may also play a significant role in colony foraging, particularly in small colonies. Here we report that reactivated Scaptotrigona mexicana foragers can recruit with high precision to a specific food location. The recruitment precision of reactivated foragers was evaluated by placing control feeders to the left and the right of the training feeder (direction-precision tests) and between the nest and the training feeder and beyond it (distance-precision tests). Reactivated foragers arrived at the correct location with high precision: 98.44% arrived at the training feeder in the direction trials (five-feeder fan-shaped array, accuracy of at least +/-6 degrees of azimuth at 50 m from the nest), and 88.62% arrived at the training feeder in the distance trials (five-feeder linear array, accuracy of at least +/-5 m or +/-10% at 50 m from the nest). Thus, S. mexicana reactivated foragers can find the indicated food source at a specific distance and direction with high precision, higher than that shown by honeybees, Apis mellifera, which do not communicate food location at such close distances to the nest.
authors.affiliation: El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Carretera Antiguo Aeropuerto km 2.5, 30700 Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sánchez
authors.forename: James C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Nieh
authors.forename: Yann
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hénaut
authors.forename: Leopoldo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cruz
authors.forename: Rémy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vandame
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D000821:Animal Feed; D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*