1Chemical Ecology Group, School of Chemistry and Physics, Keele University, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, U.K.
2Department of Genetics and Biochemistry, Universidade Federal de
UberlDndia, 38.400-902
UberlDndia, MG, Brasil.
In the first scientific study on sex determination in Hymenoptera Dzierzon (1854) showed that virgin queens lay eggs, which develop into drones. Meves (1907) found 16 chromosomes in the male spermatogonia and Nachtheim (1913), identified 32 chromosomes in the fertilized eggs of workers and queens. Furthermore Manning (1950), Paulcke (1899) and Petrunkewitsch (1901) showed that only workers or queens emerge from diploid eggs, whereas males develop from unfertilized eggs. Whiting (1943) discovered multiple alleles (i@ ) in braconids that are the Rosetta stone of sex determination in Hymenoptera. In social bees two different systems of caste determination have evolved: in the stingless bees (Meliponinae) workers are closer related to males than to queens, whereas in honeybees (Apinae) workers are closer related to queens than to males. As a result of the Meliponinae caste system, workers are similar to males not only in morphological similrities but also in behaviour (Kerr & Cunha, 1990). In this study cuticular compounds of males, females and queens from Melipona scutellaris Latreille were identified. The results of the chemical analyses gave a further proof for a closer relatedness between males and females than between males and queens.