Research Assistant

Rosalyn Gloag BSc(Hons)

rglo3079@ usyd.edu.au

Honours Project: Aggressive behaviour in stingless bees.

My project will determine the origins of aggressive interactions in Native stingless bees. Domestication of stingless bees (Meliponiculture) for pollination services holds considerable promise for Australian tropical horticulture. However, aggressive inter-colonial interactions can be problematic in Meliparies, which impose artificially high nest densities. Successful domestication therefore depends in part on understanding intra-nidal conflict. ‘Fighting swarms’ in which large numbers of workers engage in air-borne battles are an example of such conflict. These hostile encounters possibly arise because of adaptive defense against robbing behaviour by drifted workers and inter-colonial reproductive parasitism.