Relationship Between Hydrocarbon Composition on the Cuticle of Melipona quadrifasciata (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Workers and the Secretion of the Cephalic Salivary Glands

Since chemical communication is pivotal for social insect success, the present paper aimed to quantify and qualify the chemical compounds that might have pheromonal role in both cephalic salivary gland and epicuticle of workers of Melipona quadrifasciata Lepeletier using gas chromatographymass spectrometry (GC/MS). The results indicated that the hydrocarbons were the main compounds in both cephalic salivary gland and epicuticle, followed by esters. Positive Mantel correspondence analysis suggests that the glands could contribute to replenishment of surface compounds as an auxiliary source. Discriminant analysis also pointed out that gland and epicuticle chemical profiles were phase-related

Proteome of the head and thorax salivary glands in the stingless bee Melipona quadrifasciata anthidioides

International audienceThe exocrine glands of social insects are related to the social communication, reproduction, and development of individuals. Eusocial bees have two types of salivary glands: the head salivary gland, which possibly functions in marking food sources, and the thorax salivary gland, which produces saliva. This study evaluated the major protein content of the head and thorax salivary glands of the stingless bee Melipona quadrifasciata anthidioides forager workers. The head salivary gland expresses 27 proteins in high quantity, including heat shock proteins, enzymes of the glycolysis pathway, gene regulation proteins, and an odorant-binding protein. The thorax salivary gland expresses 12 proteins, including heat shock proteins, cellular detoxification proteins, energy metabolism proteins, and proteins linked to environmental stress. The proteins identified in both the head and thorax salivary glands contribute to our understanding of their possible functions in stingless bees

Climate Change, Northern Birds of Conservation Concern and Matching the Hotspots of Habitat Suitability with the Reserve Network

National reserve networks are one of the most important means of species conservation, but their efficiency may be diminished due to the projected climatic changes. Using bioclimatic envelope models and spatial data on habitats and conservation areas, we studied how efficient the reserve network will be in preserving 100 forest, mire, marshland, and alpine bird species of conservation concern in Finland in 2051–2080 under three different climate scenarios. The occurrences of the studied bird species were related to the amount of habitat preferred by each species in the different boreal zones. We employed a novel integrated habitat suitability index that takes into account both the species’ probability of occurrence from the bioclimatic models and the availability of suitable habitat. Using this suitability index, the distribution of the topmost 5% suitability squares (“hotspots”) in the four bird species groups in the period 1971–2000 and under the three scenarios were compared with the location of reserves with the highest amounts of the four habitats to study the efficiency of the network. In species of mires, marshlands, and Arctic mountains, a high proportion of protected habitat was included in the 5% hotspots in the scenarios in 2051–2080, showing that protected areas cover a high proportion of occurrences of bird species. In contrast, in forests in the southern and middle boreal zones, only a small proportion of the protected habitat was included in the 5% hotspots, indicating that the efficiency of the protected area network will be insufficient for forest birds in the future. In the northern boreal zone, the efficiency of the reserve network in forests was highly dependent on the strength of climate change varying between the scenarios. Overall, there is no single solution to preserving biodiversity in a changing climate, but several future pathways should be considered