Neutral Sterols of Cephalic Glands of Stingless Bees and Their Correlation with Sterols from Pollen

Table 1

Relative percentages (Mean ± standard deviation) of sterols in pollen and glands of Melipona marginata newly emerged workers (New), nurse bees (Nur), and foragers (For).  N = 10 (glands) and N = 2 (pollen samples, 1 g per sample).

	Hypopharyngeal				Mandibular			Labial
	Pollen	New	Nur	For	New	Nur	For	New	Nur	For
Cholesterol	0.53 ± 0.1	26.62 ± 24.2	1.31 ± 0.6	—	1.20 ± 0.4	2.60 ± 0.01	—	47.7 ± 4.9	14.79 ± 2.3	—
Campesterol	14.98 ± 4.1	14.75 ± 7.3	30.11 ± 18.8	22.16 ± 2.8	6.18 ± 2.8	29.58 ± 13.9	16.49 ± 4.1	—	13.55 ± 1.9	4.06 ± 5.2
Stigmasterol	2.01 ± 0.7	—	23.08 ± 18.7	—	3.39 ± 3.4	54.41 ± 16.8	—	—	14.07 ± 4.8	34.40 ± 44.3
Sitosterol	52.16 ± 17.9	31.38 ± 23.4	35.92 ± 24.8	65.02 ± 12.1	52.45 ± 21.8	13.37 ± 9.5	69.80 ± 29.4	52.3 ± 2.6	23.26 ± 15.4	54.12 ± 69.7
Isofucosterol	23.60 ± 15.2	14.60 ± 5.2	9.58 ± 16.3	12.82 ± 11.4	31.53 ± 10.5	0.29 ± 0.11	13.70 ± 7.4	—	11.56 ± 15.7	7.42 ± 9.6
Lanosterol	6.73 ± 6.06	12.64 ± 8.6	—	—	5.24 ± 1.2	—	—	—	22.78 ± 12.9	—