Major benefits of guarding behavior in subsocial bees: implications for social evolution.

ABSTRACT: Parental care is a behavior that increases the growth and survival of offspring, often at a cost to the parents' own survival and/or future reproduction. In this study, we focused on nest guarding, which is one of the most important types of extended parental care; we studied this behavior in two solitary bee species of the genus Ceratina with social ancestors. We performed the experiment of removing the laying female, who usually guards the nest after completing its provisioning, to test the effects of nest guarding on the offspring survival and nest fate. By dissecting natural nests, we found that Ceratina cucurbitina females always guarded their offspring until the offspring reached adulthood. In addition, the females of this species were able to crawl across the nest part

SUBMITTER: Mikat M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5513229 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature