Mechanisms and adaptations that shape division of labour in stingless bees

•Stingless bees are the largest and most diverse group of social bees

•Their division of labour shows both shared and unique traits compared to other bees

•Age, morphology and physiology are linked to variation in worker behaviour

•Novel traits and mechanisms of division of labour are likely to await discovery


Stingless bees are a diverse and ecologically important group of pollinators in the tropics. Division of labour allows bee colonies to meet the various demands of their social life, but has been studied in only ~3% of all described stingless bee species. The available data suggest that division of labour shows both parallels and striking differences compared to other social bees. Worker age is a reliable predictor of worker behaviour in many species, while morphological variation in body size or differences in brain structure are important for specific worker tasks in some species. Stingless bees provide opportunities to confirm general patterns of division of labour, but they also offer prospects to discover and study novel mechanisms underlying the different lifestyles found in eusocial bees.