Social foraging in stingless bees: how colonies of Melipona fasciata choose among nectar sources

In an experimental set-up, a colony of the stingless bee Melipona fasciata demonstrated its ability to choose the better of two nectar sources. This c olony pattern was a result of the following individual behavioural decision s: continue foraging, abandon the feeder, restart foraging and initiate for aging. Only very rarely did individuals switch from one feeder to the other . With the first combination of a rich (2.7 M) and a poor (0.8 M) feeder M. fasciata behaved differently from Apis mellifera. Recruitment occurred to both feeders and the poor feeder was not abandoned completely. When the poo r feeder was set to 0.4 M, M. fasciata abandoned the poor feeder rapidly an d allocated more foragers to the rich feeder. These patterns were similar t o those reported for A. mellifera with the first combination of feeders. Ov er a sequence of 4 days, experienced bees increasingly determined the colon y patterns, and the major function of communication between workers became the reactivation of experienced foragers. The foragers modulated their beha viour not only according to the profitability of the feeder, but also accor ding to previous experience with profitability switches. Thus, experience a nd communication together regulated colony foraging behaviour. These findin gs and the results of studies with honeybees suggest that M. fasciata and h oneybees use similar decision-making mechanisms and only partly different t ools.