Skip to main content
Dryad

Data and code from: Chemical cues in a bee kleptoparasite trigger an evasive response in a facultative eusocial orchid bee

Aragón-Pech, Rosendo Arturo de Jesús1; Muñoz-Rodríguez, David1; Ancona Lizarraga, Luis1; Quezada-Euán, José Javier Guadalupe1

Published Mar 12, 2026 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.hqbzkh1tw

Data files

Mar 12, 2026 version files 65.84 KB

Click names to download individual files

Abstract

Brood parasites often evade host detection through chemical mimicry or chemical insignificance, whereas alternative strategies such as chemical deterrence are rarely documented. We used the host-parasite model of the orchid bee Euglossa viridissima and its specialised kleptoparasite, the megachilid Hoplostelis bivittata, to study this relationship in primitively eusocial bees. We hypothesised that H. bivittata employs a chemical strategy to enter the nest and avoid host aggression, and that response rapidity increases with chemical distance. To test this, the cuticular hydrocarbon profiles of host and parasite were first compared, followed by bioassays analysing the response of host bees to conspecifics, the kleptoparasite, and the stingless bee Melipona beecheii as a control. Bioassays involved live and frozen specimens, as well as dummies coated with parasite cuticular extracts of the different species. Notably, host E. viridissima showed aggression toward conspecifics and M. beecheii, but consistently fled from live and frozen H. bivittata, including dummies covered in the parasite’s cuticular extract. We conclude that cuticular hydrocarbons in H. bivittata, mediate an evasive response in its host E. viridissima allowing nest parasitation. This is the first evidence of deterrence in a Neotropical brood-parasitic bee, expanding our understanding of chemical mediation in host-parasite arms-race interactions in primitively eusocial orchid bees.