| hygienic behaviour in brazilian stingless bees. | social insects have many defence mechanisms against pests and pathogens. one of these is hygienic behaviour, which has been studied in detail in the honey bee, apis mellifera hygienic honey bee workers remove dead and diseased larvae and pupae from sealed brood cells, thereby reducing disease transfer within the colony. stingless bees, meliponini, also rear broods in sealed cells. we investigated hygienic behaviour in three species of brazilian stingless bees (melipona scutellaris, scaptotrigona ... | 2016 | 27754850 |