A case of multiple mating in stingless bees (Meliponinae)

In several stingless bee species many males aggregate in the vicinity of a nest when a virgin queen is present in the colony and is preparing for the nuptial flight. We report such male assemblage for Tetragonisca angustula. The departure of a virgin queen from the colony and the subsequent mating could be video-recorded, because the queen and the males that had mounted her fell to the ground. Since at least two males had lost their genitalia, multiple mating seems to have occurred. This is in contrast with the prevailing view found in literature concerning the mating biology of stingless bees

Working-class royalty: bees beat the caste system

The struggle among social classes or castes is well known in humans. Here, we show that caste inequality similarly affects societies of ants, bees and wasps, where castes are morphologically distinct and workers have greatly reduced reproductive potential compared with queens. In social insects, an individual normally has no control over its own fate, whether queen or worker, as this is socially determined during rearing. Here, for the first time, we quantify a strategy for overcoming social control. In the stingless bee Schwarziana quadripunctata, some individuals reared in worker cells avoid a worker fate by developing into fully functional dwarf queens