Abstract The death of the queen can lead to behavioral changes in workers of eusocial bees that alter their longevity. Here, we investigated the behavior and longevity of workers in colonies of the neotropical stingless bee Scaptotrigona aff. postica in the absence of a mated queen. Eight colonies, four being queenright, and four with their physogastric queens removed (queenless), were used in experiments. Emerging workers were marked with different colors to obtain age cohorts. We observed external foraging activity, age of workers involved in cell construction and foraging, and worker longevity in all colonies for 100 days. Over time, queenless colonies presented a greater reduction in external activity than queenright colonies; older workers were more frequently observed participating in cell construction and foraging compared with queenright colonies, and worker lifespan in queenless colonies was about a third longer than that observed in queenright colonies. Our study demonstrates that orphaned workers of this species substantially alter their behavior, causing an increase in their overall longevity and workers starting to lay haploid eggs, allowing some direct reproduction by workers in the absence of a queen. Significance statement For eusocial species, the loss of the reproductive individual is a critical period for colony survival. Our study shows, for the first time, how workers in a neotropical stingless bee species adapt their behavior during periods without a queen. We show that the longevity of workers of Scaptotrigona aff. postica from orphaned colonies on average increased by 33% compared with regular colonies. We also show that many foragers from orphaned colonies spend more time inside the nest building brood cells rather than participating in more risky foraging behaviors. Therefore, workers alter their behavior in the absence of an egg-laying queen; these changes cause a substantial increase of longevity of the labor force (i.e., workers), and consequently, a possibility that the nest survives until a new mated queen resumes oviposition. In case a new queen does not appear in the colony, males produced by egg-laying workers (which gain a direct fitness through direct reproduction) may spread the colonial genome, by mating with queens from other colonies.

中文翻译：

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蜂王丢失改变了无刺蜜蜂的行为并延长了它们的寿命

摘要 蜂王的死亡会导致真社会性蜜蜂工蜂的行为改变，从而改变它们的寿命。在这里，我们调查了新热带无刺蜂 Scaptotrigona aff 群体中工人的行为和寿命。postica 在没有交配的女王的情况下。实验中使用了八个菌落，其中四个是皇后区，四个是去除了它们的 physogastric 皇后区（无皇后区）。新兴工人用不同的颜色标记以获得年龄队列。我们观察了所有菌落的外部觅食活动、参与细胞构建和觅食的工人年龄以及工人寿命 100 天。随着时间的推移，无蚁群的外部活动比有蚁群的群落更大；与 Queenright 群体相比，年长的工人更频繁地参与细胞构建和觅食，无女王群体的工人寿命比 Queenright 群体中观察到的寿命长约三分之一。我们的研究表明，该物种的孤儿工蚁显着改变了它们的行为，导致它们的整体寿命延长，工蚁开始产下单倍体卵，从而在没有蚁后的情况下允许工蚁直接繁殖。意义声明 对于真社会物种，生殖个体的丧失是群体生存的关键时期。我们的研究首次表明，在没有蜂王的情况下，新热带无刺蜂物种的工蜂是如何调整自己的行为的。我们展示了 Scaptotrigona aff 工人的长寿。与常规菌落相比，来自孤立菌落的 postica 平均增加了 33%。我们还表明，许多来自孤儿群的觅食者在筑巢细胞内花费更多时间，而不是参与更具风险的觅食行为。因此，工蚁在没有产卵蜂王的情况下会改变他们的行为；这些变化导致劳动力（即工人）的寿命显着增加，因此，巢有可能存活到新的交配后的蜂王恢复产卵。如果群落中没有出现新的蜂后，产卵工人产生的雄性（通过直接繁殖获得直接适应性）可能会通过与其他蜂群的蜂后交配来传播群落基因组。我们还表明，许多来自孤儿群的觅食者在筑巢细胞内花费更多时间，而不是参与更具风险的觅食行为。因此，工蚁在没有产卵蜂王的情况下会改变他们的行为；这些变化导致劳动力（即工人）的寿命显着增加，因此，巢有可能存活到新的交配后的蜂王恢复产卵。如果群落中没有出现新的蜂后，产卵工人产生的雄性（通过直接繁殖获得直接适应性）可能会通过与其他蜂群的蜂后交配来传播群落基因组。我们还表明，许多来自孤儿群的觅食者在筑巢细胞内花费更多时间，而不是参与更具风险的觅食行为。因此，工蚁在没有产卵蜂王的情况下会改变他们的行为；这些变化导致劳动力（即工人）的寿命显着增加，因此，巢有可能存活到新的交配后的蜂王恢复产卵。如果群落中没有出现新的蜂后，产卵工人产生的雄性（通过直接繁殖获得直接适应性）可能会通过与其他蜂群的蜂后交配来传播群落基因组。这些变化导致劳动力（即工人）的寿命显着增加，因此，巢有可能存活到新的交配后的蜂王恢复产卵。如果群落中没有出现新的蜂后，产卵工人产生的雄性（通过直接繁殖获得直接适应性）可能会通过与其他蜂群的蜂后交配来传播群落基因组。这些变化导致劳动力（即工人）的寿命显着增加，因此，巢有可能存活到新的交配后的蜂王恢复产卵。如果群落中没有出现新的蜂后，产卵工人产生的雄性（通过直接繁殖获得直接适应性）可能会通过与其他蜂群的蜂后交配来传播群落基因组。