Figure 1. Effect of biological parameters (number of external activity of workers, egg-laying rate, food stocks (total weight) and brood cells (for details on parameter estimation, see Materials and Methods ) on colony size (number of adult bees) considering all species. Points represent individual colonies, and the black line is the general estimate of the model. The gray shaded area defines the 95% confidence intervals for the model. The predictor and response variables for individual species were standardized using Z-scores. a) - Relationship between brood cells and size of the adult population, b) - Relationship between external activity and size of the adult population, c) - Relationship between egg-laying rate and size of the adult population, d) - Relationship between food stocks and size of the adult population. Colors represent colonies of five stingless bee species: pink = Melipona flavolineata , gold = Melipona fasciculata , green = Frieseomelitta longipes , lilac = Scaptotrigonaaff. postica , blue = Plebeia minima .