Figure 2. Non-linear Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) ordination
plots showing the differentiation of honey samples grouped into two
convex hulls to the bee tribe. The results show that SBH were divided in
two discrete groups with little overlap due to one sample of each group
that differed from the compositional profile of its tribe.
Our chemodiversity analysis showed that SBH had a significantly higher
richness, evenness, disparity and functional diversity than honey bees
according to all the indexes assessed investigated (Supplementary Fig.
2). Non-sugar compounds represented 7% of the composition of samples
from honey bees while these represented 19% in SBH composition, mainly
fermentation markers. Among the three main fermentation markers, lactic
(X² = 136.87, df = 1, p-value < 2.2e-16) and acetic acid (X² =
155.64, df = 1, p-value < 2.2e-16) levels were significantly
higher in SBH while ethanol was present in equal concentration.