Study site and species
This study was performed in the meliponary housed at the Botany
Department of Embrapa Amazônia Oriental (1º26′11.52″S, 48°26′35.50″W),
Belém, Pará, Brazil, during the dry season of 2016 (September and
October), and the rainy seasons of 2017 and 2018 (May). Five species of
stingless bees were studied (Fig. S1): Melipona flavolineataFriese, 1900, Melipona fasciculata Smith, 1854,Scaptotrigona aff. postica Latreille, 1807,Frieseomelitta longipes (Smith, 1854) and Plebeia minima(Gribodo, 1893). These species were chosen because they are well adapted
to housing in wooden hives, resistant to handling and manipulation, and
can be multiplied for use in crop pollination (Contrera et al. 2011;
Jaffé et al. 2015; Leão et al. 2016). Melipona flavolineataoccurs in the Brazilian states of Ceará, Maranhão, Pará and Tocantins;M. fasciculata occurs in the states of Maranhão, Mato Grosso,
Pará, Piauí and Tocantins; S. aff. postica and F.
longipes occurs in the state of Pará; and P. minima in the
states of Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Maranhão, Mato Grosso and Pará, besides
Peru, Bolivia, and Suriname (Pedro 2014).
For the experiment, eight colonies of M. flavolineata , eight
colonies of M. fasciculata , nine colonies of F. longipes ,
12 colonies of P. minima and 13 colonies of S. aff.postica were used. These colonies were left undisturbed and
without supplemental feeding during the three months prior to the
experiment and were kept in individual wooden shelters (Contrera and
Venturieri 2008), distanced at least 2 meters from each other. To reduce
the possibility of drifting (i.e., foragers returning to wrong colonies;
see Oliveira et al. 2021), the entrances of neighboring colonies were
arranged in opposing directions.