A social , stingless bee species in Brazil feeds their larvae a particular fungus that they grow on the walls of their own nest . Without it , most of the young will die , consort to findings published inCurrent Biologythis week .
Other societal louse , such as ants and termites , have been known to raise micro-organism that provide nutrients or auspices against morbific microbes . In return , the fungus and other symbionts get to enjoy a well-off microenvironment with stable conditions and a rich source of solid food . But this new work is the first sentence we ’ve escort a relationship between societal bee and a cultivated fungus .
Cristiano Menezes of theBrazilian Agricultural Research Corporationfirst acknowledge the clean fungus when he was attending to beekeeping tasks in the science laboratory for a different study . Under humid consideration , it was spring up out of control along the interior walls of the wax cell used to rearward larvae ; and after larvae begin dying , he thought perchance the fungus was a pathogen . That is , until he saw that it was also growing – but much less profusely – in instinctive brood combs . Under these less humid conditions , the survival rate of larvae improved dramatically .
So , Menezes and colleagues consider 30 colonies of Brazilian stingless bee ( Scaptotrigona depilis ) . Their brood cells are purvey with a semi - fluent food mass regurgitated by nurse workers . The queen position an nut on top of the food , then proletarian close off the cell , which is n’t opened again until adult bee emerge . The fungus commence proliferate just as the three - day - onetime egg was about to hatch , and its emergence was vivid until the third 24-hour interval of larval development . Two day later , it looked as if the fungus had go away from the brood cells . Recordings showed that larvae devour the fungus , which the team identified as a member of the genusMonascus .
To see if the fungus is critical to survival of the fittest , the team harvested larval food from brood cells and placed in acrylic brood cellular phone in the lab . Larvae raised on sterilized food affix with fungus filum survived 76 % of the prison term . Meanwhile , only 8 % of the larvae without the fungus survived : They grew slowly , developed darkened gut , and died in large numbers in a workweek . Additionally , larval food from cell without the fungus smelled big and seemed mucilaginous and spoil .
Bee larvae in vitro . Cristiano Menezes
The fungus originates from the building material used to construct brood cell . These bees recycle and rapture “ contaminated ” material between mother nests and new colony . Unlike know fungus - farming insects , these bees do n’t be given to their crop besides providing a desirable substratum . In this way , the authors say the system is more of a proto - farming one .
The team has yet to figure out the main function of the fungus . If it ’s nutrition , they ’d expect to find smaller bees or deform unity in its absence . So it ’s possible that the fungus helps protect the larvae and larval food from other microbe . " This is astonishing because it opens up a new battlefield in bee research to understand the part of this and other microorganisms in colony wellness , ” Menezes says in astatement . “ On the other hand , it is dreadful because fungicides and bactericides are widely sprayed during blooming periods of several crops and may affect bees ' symbionts and consequently their health . "
