A scientific note on the use of external feeders for the Amazonian stingless bee Melipona flavolineata (Apidae, Meliponini)

Artificial feeding of stingless bee colonies is widely applied in meliponiculture to maintain colonies in good conditions during periods of natural food scarcity. Traditionally, most stingless beekeepers tend to adopt the individual feeding of colonies, to avoid conflicts among colonies or competition with feral species. We trained foragers from Melipona flavolineata colonies to collective feeders containing sugar syrup, and showed they are useful for the management of this species, since they did not cause significant intra and interspecific conflicts, and thus, worker losses. Besides, most colonies from the meliponary frequented the feeder, showing that collective feeding in this species is possible and can be recommended to keep colonies in good condition during periods of natural food dearth or after honey harvesting.