Transfer of Radioactivity from Worker to Drone Honey Bees after Ingestion of Radioactive Sucrose

Abstract

Little attention has been given to whether the males of social insects are independent of the workers or partly or wholly dependent on them. Schwartz (1948) does not discuss the question in his monograph on the stingless bees (Meliponidae). The drones of stingless bees in Costa Rica, according to Orlando Munoz B. (personal communication), are not seen on flowers. P. Nogueira-Neto, an authority on the stingless bee in Brazil, has captured a few male bees on flowers. He says (personal communication), “I suspect that males [stingless bees] may feed or be fed (it is not known) in the hive, but I believe that they also feed on flowers.” Kerr (1951) states that drones of some species of stingless bees leave their nest when adult and do not return to it. The implication is that they can support themselves by getting food from flowers. He thinks that males of Melipona quadrifasciata Lep. cover themselves with pollen, thus enabling themselves to enter any colony.