The research of his laboratory at Vienna University focuses on neurophysiology and sensory biology of spiders. However, due to his secret love for bees, in 1996 Friedrich G. Barth initiated, and since then supervises, a successful collaboration with Ronaldo Zucchi. Since then, nine master students and four PhD students investigated foraging and recruitment mechanisms of stingless bees in Brazil.
contact: Friedrich G. Barth
He is head of an internationally renown social insect lab. The main research topics in his laboratory at the USP in Ribeirão Preto are ecology and behaviour of social Hymenoptera, among them stingless bees and social wasps. He always made us feel at home in his laboratory, and tolerates our sometimes weird research.
contact: Ronaldo Zucchi
He is kind of our guru concerning stingless beekeeping and handling of colonies. And do not think it is easy to handle colonies of stingless bees, just because they do not have a sting...
Sidnei is doing research on the population structure and the swarming behaviour of Neotropical social wasps.
contact:Sidnei Mateus
Linde is doing her maste's at the moment. Her work includes transmission properties of stingless bee nests, bee-induced substrate vibrations on natural nest structures, behavioural observations on where communication and food transfers really occur within "natural" nests, and a couple of other things. She probalbly has data for several masters and PhDs.
contact: Linde Morawetz
Anne-Isabelle Gravel
She has actually not much to do with stingless bees... Anne is working at Laurence Packer's lab at York University in Toronto. at the moment she is doing her masters on the Patagonian bee diversity for comparison with the bee diversity at the same latitude, but north of the equator.
However, last year she coincidentally invented the famous "SlingBuzzer2005", which has ever since become a highly used research tool in stingless bee communication research (at least in our lab).
contact: Anne-Isabelle Gravel
She is working on her PhD at the University of Buenos Aires, in Walter Farina's lab. For her research on the olfactory memory of stingless bees she dropped in Ribeirão Preto. As far as we know, she was the first to succeed in investigating the PER (proboscis extension reflex) in stingless bees. Maybe she tells you her secret of success...
contact: Sofia Mc Cabe
Laboratório de abelhas
a famous São Paulo Universiy bee lab. Their research lines are: Biodiversity and habitat fragmentation, foraging activity of honey bees and stingless bees, pollination and bee-plant interactions, social behavior with emphasis on stingless bees, and applied studies on stingless beekeeping and their utilisation as crop pollinators.
contact: beelab@ib.usp.br
Nieh Bee Laboratory
James Nieh's bee laboratory focuses on a more philosophical question, the evolution of animal communication. The research in this lab examines mechanisms that allow highly social bees (among them stingless bees) to communicate resource location.
contact: James Nieh
Marinus J. Sommeijer's Lab in Utrecht University has its focus on the study of the behavioural ecology of bees in the tropics. Currently, two projects are coordinated by M. Sommeijer: Management of Africanised honey bees and Meliponiculture in Costa Rica.
contact: Marinus J. Sommeijer
This tropical bee research centre has a variety of activities, among them bee diseases and plagues, bee diversity and taxonomy, communication in stingless bees, queen breeding, crop pollination, reproduction and management of stingless bees and Africanised honey bees. Ingrid Aguilar has also a pilot project for beekeeping in rural areas.
contact: Ingrid Aguilar
During his PhD, Thomas Eltz's research concentrated on the ecology of stingless bees in Sabah, Malaysia. Currently, he works on the chemical ecology of bees, including fragrance biology of neotropical orchid bees and scent-driven foraging decisions of bees around Düsseldorf.
contact: Thomas Eltz
BeeGroup Würzburg
This honey bee specialised group has its research focus on fundamentals of honey bee biology, and specifically onto principles of disease resistance in honey bees. Various important publications on signal transmission and communication in these bees originate from this lab. Visit also the bee-group web-site (in german).
contact: Jürgen Tautz
INSSOC
This is Walter Farina's lab in Buenos Aires. Their research focuses on various aspects of the organisation of group foraging processes in honey bees, the acquisition and processing of information related to exploited food sources. Walter is one of the major promoters of the trophallaxis as centre of information transfer.
contact: Walter Farina
This research group of Manfred Ayasse deals with behavioural ecology and chemical ecology of hymenopteran insects and the pollination biology of orchids. Special focus in research is on the isolation and identification of behaviour-mediating and physiologically active compounds from solitary bees, social bees and orchids.
contact: Manfred Ayasse
Tom D. Seeley
The Neurobiology & Behavior Department of Tom Seeley is worldwide one of the most famous honey bee research centres. Their research deals with the question how a colony is internally organized to effectively gather its food and water, choose a nest site and build its nest, and protect itself from predators and parasites.
contact: Tom Seeley
Axel Michelsen
He is one of the famous researchers on the sector of honey bee communication. His research interests are: Biology and biophysics of sound communication, especially in insects, the mechanisms of directional hearing, and the dance language of honeybees.
contact: Axel Michelsen
Mandyam V. Srinivasan
The research group of Mandyam Srinivasan investigates the principles of visual processing in small animals, such as honey bees. Several fundamental insights into insect navigation and perception of flight distances originate from this research group.
cotact: Mandyam Srinivasan