The influence of nest materials on nestmate recognition behaviour has been described in detail for honeybees and paperwasps, but has remained virtually unknown for stingless bees. Our results for F. varia are in agreement with honeybee studies. However, for the
Apis genus, behavioural tests describe transference of chemical recognition cues after only 5 min of contact with alien nest wax (Breed et al. 1995). In this way, as with the wax for honeybees, the cerumen could act by unifying the chemical compounds present in
the colony of the stingless bee F. varia, redistributing the compounds through contact. Thiswould explain the homogeneous odour of each colony, as evidenced by the high level of correct classifications of individuals to predicted groups in our chemical analyses.