Intratribal variation among mature larvae of stingless bees (Apidae: Meliponini) with descriptions of the eggs of 11 species

Title Variants

Alternative: Intratribal variation in stingless bee larvae

Related Titles

Series: American Museum novitates, number 3971

By

Rozen, Jerome G. Jr. (Jerome George), 1928- , author

Almeida, Eduardo A. B. (Eduardo Andrade Botelho) , author
Smith, Corey Shepard , author
Jones, Lance Eric, , author

Type

Book

Material

Published material

Publication info

New York, NY, American Museum of Natural History, [2021]

Notes

Caption title.

"June 28, 2021."

The abundant members of the Meliponini (stingless bees) are restricted to the tropics and subtropics worldwide. Because past studies of the anatomy of their mature larvae are limited, revealing little anatomical variation in the tribe, the current investigation attempts to examine this topic more thoroughly. Herein we describe the mature larvae of 30 species representing 16 genera of a total world fauna of perhaps 32 genera. Although the larvae of most taxa show little anatomical diversity, two species, Trigona (Duckeola) ghilianii Spinola and Trigona (Frieseomelitta) varia (Lepeletier), have mature larvae that differ remarkably in anatomical structure from those of other known stingless bees, and, further, their individual anatomies suggest a close evolutionary relationship. Larval evidence is presented indicating that Trichotrigona extranea (Camargo and Moure) is also related to these two taxa. Because eggs are often included in collections of bee larvae, this study adds descriptions of the eggs of 11 species of the Meliponini not previously characterized as well as a list of those that had been treated earlier.

Subjects

Anatomy , Larvae , stingless bees

Call Number

QL1 .A436 no. 3971 2021

Language

English

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1206/3971.1
OCLC: 1257788698