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 .