BEHAVIORIAL STUDY ON HYPOTRIGONA GRIBODOI (HYMENOPTERA, APIDAE, MELIPONINI) WITH REFERENCE TO THE PROCESS OF PROVISIONING AND OVIPOSITION (POP)

The behavior of Hypotrigona gribodoi was examined in 2008 and 2014 in Cameroon. The study focused on food
provissioning and oviposition process (POP) by the workers and the queen. Several observations and 30 video recordings
were made. These bees are among the smallest bees found in the world. A study on POP showed the following behavioral
features: The queen stays most of her life in the brood nets except during early stages of cell construction. The brood cells
are constructed in clusters and in a disorderly manner, without any particular plane at the surface to distinguish the newly
constructed cells from the old ones. They exhibit semi-synchronous brood cell construction with exclusively batched queen
oviposition. The workers clean their nest during the early hours of the day and dump the dirt just below the nest entrance.
The coactions or interactions between the queen and the workers are mostly cordial. The queen feeds the worker in
some instances. The workers were never seen laying trophic eggs and only a single queen in the colony was observed
throughout the research period. H. gribodoi are generally calm with a single queen (monogynous) at any given time in a
colony. Brood cells are constructed semi synchronously and the oviposition pattern is exclusively batched. Cell
provisioning is done by extremely large number of workers and the duration of oviposition is longer than that of most
stingless bees already studied. A close comparison with nearest relatives of H. gribodoi, shows that the queen feeds the
workers in some cases instead of the workers feeding the queen as is the case with the relatives. Workers oviposition does
not seem to occur in this species. A few cases of aggressive behavior was observed with workers when Meliponula becarii
and Apis M. adansonii tried invading and also by the queen to workers who prolonged their stay on already
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