Foraging and Drifting Patterns of a Highly Eusocial Neotropical Stingless Bee Species Assessed by Radio-frequency Identification Tags

Abstract Bees play a key role in ecosystem services as the main pollinators of numerous flowering plants. Studying factors influencing their foraging behaviour is relevant not only to understand their biology, but also how populations might respond to changes in their habitat and to the climate. Here, we used radio-frequency identification tags to monitor the foraging behaviour of the neotropical stingless bee Melipona fasciculata with special interest in drifting patterns, i.e. when a forager drifts into a foreign nest. In addition, we collected meteorological data to study how abiotic factors affect bees’ lifespan and behaviour. Our results show that only 35 % of bees never drifted to another hive nearby, and that factors such as temperature, humidity and solar irradiation affected the foragers drifting rates and/or lifespan. Moreover, we tested whether drifting levels would decrease after marking the nest entrances with different patterns. Contrary to our predictions, there was an increase in the proportion of drifting, indicating that this could be a deliberate strategy rather than an orientation mistake. Overall, our results demonstrate how managed bee populations are affected by both nearby hives and climate factors, offering unprecedented insights on their biology and potential commercial application as crop pollinators.