Contrasting Foraging Strategies and Coexistence of Two Bee Species on a Single Resource

摘要: The foraging patterns of two eusocial stingless bees, Trigona fuscipennis and fulviventris, were studied on a population the shrub, Cassia biflora, in tropical dry forest Costa Rica. fuscipennis, which forages large groups that monopolize plants, restricted its visits to large, dense clumps Cassia. Visited plants had significantly more flowers than nonvisited plants. as individuals or small groups, visited widely spaced isolated In by T. there was no significant difference number vs. non- clumps, however, few fulviventris fewer not visited. This observation observations interspecific ag- gression suggests is excluded from better fus- cipennis. We believe observed result both evolved strategies displacement due short-term ecological competition. To explain results, we hypothesize species may stably partition coexist single resource, provided (1) resource has highly variable spatial dispersion pattern, ranging local patches regions thinly spread (2) profitably harvested only one species, (3) are controlled second (4) nonmobile such mixing occurs between sparse areas. propose terms "low- high-density specialists" describe species.