A remarkable finding is that newly emerged honeybee workers are not rejected from any colony into which they are inserted. observed that these individuals have low quantities of lipid substances associated with their cuticle. The authors suggested that the absence of recognition cues is responsible for these high acceptation rates, and that individuals acquire recognition cues as they get older.
In this report, we investigated different possible sources for
nestmate recognition cues in the stingless bee F. varia. To clarify the
relative importance of endogenous and exogenous cues for
discrimination in F. varia, we investigated, first, the possibility of
genetically derived cues by analysing acceptance rates in foreign
nests of newly emerged individuals.We also tested food sources and
nest material (cerumen) as possible exogenous sources of colony
odour. Cerumen is a dark viscousmaterial made from gathered plant
resins and wax produced by stingless bee workers