Food Recruitment Information can Spatially Redirect Employed Stingless Bee Foragers

The co-evolution of pollinators and angiosperms has contributed to the remarkable diversity and success of bees and bee-pollinated plants (Harder & Johnson 2008). Many pollinated plants provide nectar or pollen rewards that encourage foragers to be faithful to the same floral species (Gegear & Burns 2007). These rewards can also lead to site constancy, in which foragers visit the same foraging area, even when other rewarding areas are accessible (Osborne & Williams 2001). Site constancy has been found in several bee groups and can enhance foraging efficiency in stable environments. For example, traplining (visiting food sources in a specific, repeatable sequence) is a form of site constancy and can enhance bumble bee food collection efficiency (Saleh et al. 2007). Osborne & Williams (2001) found 86–88% site constancy in the bumble bee, Bombus lapidarus, with most site switches occurring among adjacent patches. Employed honey bee foragers will also continue to visit a rewarding food patch with high quality food (Seeley et al. 1991). Stingless bees behave similarly. Employed Melipona fasciata foragers did not switch between feeders placed 200 m in opposite directions from the nest when both locations offered high quality food (Biesmeijer & Ermers 1999). Site constancy can have a strong effect on pollen dispersal distances and gene flow. Levin et al. (1971) modeled the effect of foraging directionality on pollen flow in bumble bees and Correspondence Rémy Vandame, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Carretera Antiguo Aeropuerto Km. 2.5, 30700 Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico. E-mail: [email protected]