Virgin queens (gynes) exhibit a range of behaviors in order to be accepted as the leader of colony. However, environmental neurotoxic insecticides as neonicotinoids may affect the social performance of the bees. Here, we evaluated the sublethal effects of neonicotinoid imidacloprid on the larval food of queens from Plebeia droryana, a species of neotropical stingless bee. Several behaviors were analyzed as multivariate response variables in a Hotelling test, as well as generalized additive mixed models. Our findings demonstrate that treated queens perform less wing vibration and trophallaxis with their workers. Furthermore, the treated gynes encounter more harassment (aggression) from their workers, suggesting that workers can differentiate nontreated queens from treated queens most likely by chemical signals. Our data indicate that the behavioral repertoire underlying the queen selection process by the stingless bee P. droryana may be seriously affected by residual doses of imidacloprid in larval food. As a result, such queens are rather undernourished and aggressed by workers, which most likely compromises the viability and permanence of colonies in the long term.

处女皇后（gynes）表现出一系列行为，以便被接受为殖民地领袖。但是，环境神经毒性杀虫剂（如新烟碱类）可能会影响蜜蜂的社交表现。在这里，我们评估了新烟碱类吡虫啉对Plebeia droryana皇后区幼虫食物的亚致死作用。，一种新热带无刺蜂。在Hotelling检验中，将几种行为作为多元响应变量进行了分析，并分析了广义加性混合模型。我们的研究结果表明，经过治疗的女王/王后与他们的工人相比，机翼振动和对向旋转性更小。此外，经过处理的妇科工人会遭受来自工人的更多骚扰（侵略），这表明工人可以通过化学信号将未经处理的女皇与经过处理的女皇区分开。我们的数据表明无刺蜂P. droryana在皇后选择过程中的行为方式幼虫食品中吡虫啉的残留剂量可能会严重影响该药的使用。结果，这样的王后被工人营养不良和侵略，从长远来看，这很可能会损害殖民地的生存能力和持久性。