Martin Stephen J, Shemilt Sue, da S Lima Cândida B, de Carvalho Carlos A L
School of Environment and Life Sciences, The University of Salford, M5 4WT, Manchester, UK.
Chemical Ecology Group, School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, Lennard-Jones Laboratory, Keele University, Newcastle upon Tyne, ST5 5BG, UK.
J Chem Ecol. 2017 Dec;43(11-12):1066-1072. doi: 10.1007/s10886-017-0901-5. Epub 2017 Nov 17.
Our understanding of the role of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHC) in recognition is based largely on temperate ant species and honey bees. The stingless bees remain relatively poorly studied, despite being the largest group of eusocial bees, comprising more than 400 species in some 60 genera. The Meliponini and Apini diverged between 80-130 Myr B.P. so the evolutionary trajectories that shaped the chemical communication systems in ants, honeybees and stingless bees may be very different. The aim of this study was to study if a unique species CHC signal existed in Neotropical stingless bees, as has been shown for many temperate species, and what compounds are involved. This was achieved by collecting CHC data from 24 colonies belonging to six species of Melipona from North-Eastern Brazil and comparing the results with previously published CHC studies on Melipona. We found that each of the eleven Melipona species studied so far each produced a unique species CHC signal based around their alkene isomer production. A remarkable number of alkene isomers, up to 25 in M. asilvai, indicated the diversification of alkene positional isomers among the stingless bees. The only other group to have really diversified in alkene isomer production are the primitively eusocial Bumblebees (Bombus spp), which are the sister group of the stingless bees. Furthermore, among the eleven Neotropical Melipona species we could detect no effect of the environment on the proportion of alkane production as has been suggested for some other species.
我们对表皮碳氢化合物（CHC）在识别过程中所起作用的理解，很大程度上基于温带地区的蚂蚁物种和蜜蜂。无刺蜂尽管是群居性蜜蜂中最大的群体，在约60个属中包含400多种，但对其研究相对较少。Meliponini和Apini在距今80 - 130百万年前分化，因此塑造蚂蚁、蜜蜂和无刺蜂化学通讯系统的进化轨迹可能大不相同。本研究的目的是探究新热带地区的无刺蜂是否像许多温带物种那样存在独特的物种CHC信号，以及涉及哪些化合物。这是通过收集来自巴西东北部六种Melipona属的24个蜂群的CHC数据，并将结果与之前发表的关于Melipona的CHC研究进行比较来实现的。我们发现，到目前为止所研究的1种Melipona属物种，每一种都基于其烯烃异构体的产生产生了独特的物种CHC信号。大量的烯烃异构体，在M. asilvai中多达25种，表明无刺蜂中烯烃位置异构体的多样化。在烯烃异构体产生方面真正实现多样化的另一类群体是原始群居的熊蜂（Bombus spp），它们是无刺蜂的姐妹群体。此外，在11种新热带地区的Melipona属物种中，我们没有检测到环境对烷烃产生比例的影响，而其他一些物种曾有过相关暗示。
