Free Access
Issue |
Apidologie
Volume 34, Number 4, July-August 2003
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Page(s) | 359 - 365 | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/apido:2003027 |
Apidologie 34 (2003) 359-365
DOI: 10.1051/apido:2003027
a Laboratório de Abelhas, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, 05508-900 São Paulo SP, Brasil
b Chemical Ecology Group, Lennard-Jones Laboratory, School of Chemistry and Physics, Keele University, Staffs., ST5 5BG, UK
c Present address: El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Carretera Antiguo Aeropuerto Km. 2.5, Tapachula, Chiapas, CP 30700, AP 36, Mexico
(Received 14 June 2002; revised 25 November 2002; accepted 12 December 2002)
Key words: Frieseomelitta sylvestrii / Frieseomelitta varia / Frieseomelitta sylvestrii languida / geranylfarnesol
Correspondence and reprints: E. David Morgan
e-mail: e.d.morgan@keele.ac.uk
© INRA, EDP Sciences, DIB, AGIB 2003
DOI: 10.1051/apido:2003027
Secretions of stingless bees: the Dufour glands of some Frieseomelitta species (Apidae, Meliponinae)
Eda Flávia L.R.A. Patricioa, Leopoldo Cruz Lópezb, c, Roland Maileb and E. David Morganba Laboratório de Abelhas, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, 05508-900 São Paulo SP, Brasil
b Chemical Ecology Group, Lennard-Jones Laboratory, School of Chemistry and Physics, Keele University, Staffs., ST5 5BG, UK
c Present address: El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Carretera Antiguo Aeropuerto Km. 2.5, Tapachula, Chiapas, CP 30700, AP 36, Mexico
(Received 14 June 2002; revised 25 November 2002; accepted 12 December 2002)
Abstract
The first recorded analyses of meliponine bee Dufour gland secretions
by gas chromatographic-mass spectrometry on three species of Frieseomelitta
showed these glands contain a mixture of oxygenated compounds and terpenoids
with some hydrocarbons. In F. varia the major substances are eicosenal,
1-eicosenol and 2-pentadecanone. In F. sylvestrii they are pentacosene,
nonadecanal and heptacosene. F. silvestrii languida, with the largest
glands and the most complex mixture, has geranylfarnesol, followed
by 1-tetradecanol and tetradecanal, making it quite different
from F. silvestrii.
Key words: Frieseomelitta sylvestrii / Frieseomelitta varia / Frieseomelitta sylvestrii languida / geranylfarnesol
Correspondence and reprints: E. David Morgan
e-mail: e.d.morgan@keele.ac.uk
© INRA, EDP Sciences, DIB, AGIB 2003