Evoluce sociality a rodičovské péče u včel rodu Ceratina

Mikát, Michael

Small carpenter bees (genus Ceratina) are an excellent model taxon for the study of evolution of parental care and origin of eusociality. Prolonged offspring care is typical for this bee genus. Females usually guard their offspring until adulthood and later feed their adult offspring pollen and nectar. Moreover, most of studied species are facultatively eusocial, a trait probably inherited from the common ancestor of the genus. Although Ceratina bees have generally very interesting behavior, detailed studies were performed in only a few species, usually from North America, Japan and Australia. Only anecdotal observations of natural history existed for a few European species, and detailed research has not been performed before my thesis. The goal of my thesis is to explore the natural history of European species of Ceratina and to identify possible costs and benefits of this species' behavioral traits. I focused on following these behavioral traits: social nesting, guarding of offspring until adulthood, and feeding of mature offspring. Through my master project, I discovered biparental care in species C. nigrolabiata, therefore the most important goal of my Ph.D. project is the evaluation of costs and benefits of this behavior. Guarding of offspring by mother significantly influences their survival,...

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