Abstract
Natural history of facultative social taxa is important for understanding the evolution of Eusociality. However, data for the social status of many species are missing.
Social status of seven European Ceratina bees was studied in Cyprus. Multifemale nests were found in five species of three different subgenera: C. (Euceratina) mandibularis, C. (E.) cypriaca, C. (E.) chrysomalla, C. (Dalyatina) parvula and C. (Neoceratina) bispinosa.
No social nests were found in C. (E.) dallatoreana and C. (N.) schwarzi, in which the sample size was also small. We compared nest productivity between solitary and multifemale nests in C. cypriaca, C. mandibularis, and C. parvula.
It is apparent that multifemale nests have a higher number of brood cells than solitary nests. Per capita productivity was equal in both nest types.
We can conclude that facultative sociality is common in Ceratina bees of subtropical climate and social nesting is the successful strategy.