Usurpation of African Apis mellifera scutellata colonies by parasitic Apis mellifera capensis workers (original) (raw)
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Social parasitism of queens and workers in the Cape honeybee (Apis mellifera capensis)
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 2012
Workers of a queenless honeybee colony can requeen the colony by raising a new queen from a young worker brood laid by the old queen. If this process fails, the colony becomes hopelessly queenless and workers activate their ovaries to lay eggs themselves. Laying Cape honeybee workers (Apis mellifera capensis) produce female offspring as an additional pathway for requeening. We tested the frequency of successful requeening in ten hopelessly queenless colonies. DNA genotyping revealed that only 8% of all queens reared in hopelessly queenless colonies were the offspring of native laying worker offspring. The vast majority of queens resulted from parasitic takeovers by foreign queens (27%) and invading parasitic workers (19%). This shows that hopelessly queenless colonies typically die due to parasitic takeovers and that the parasitic laying workers are an important life history strategy more frequently used than in providing a native queen to rescue the colony. Parasitism by foreign queens, which might enter colonies alone or accompanied by only a small worker force is much more frequent than previously considered and constitutes an additional life history strategy in Cape honeybees.
Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 2021
Cohesion in social insect colonies is maintained by use of chemical signals produced by the queen, workers, and brood. In honey bees in particular, signals from the queen and brood are crucial for the regulation of reproductive division of labor, ensuring that the only reproductive female individual in the colony is the queen, whereas the workers remain reproductively sterile. However, even given this strict level of control, workers can, in principle, activate their ovaries and lay eggs. Although much is known about the behavioral and physiological traits that accompany the switch from worker sterility to being reproductively active, much less is known regarding the molecular changes that accompany this switch. This review will explore what is known about the genes and molecular pathways involved in the making of laying workers/false queens in the Cape honey bee, Apis mellifera capensis Eschscholtz, through an analysis of the basis for thelytoky in this subspecies, the exocrine gla...
Apidologie, 2006
A single clonal lineage of socially parasitic Cape honeybee workers, Apis mellifera capensis, has caused dramatic losses in managed populations of A. m. scutellata, raising concerns that wild populations might also be affected. We surveyed A. m. scutellata swarms at 27 localities in beekeeping areas (N = 87) and in nature reserves (N = 79). While eleven swarms were infested in beekeeping areas, we found no infestations in nature reserves. Eight swarms had no symptoms except workers with black tergites. However, DNA data revealed that these workers are not parasitic, showing that diagnoses based on tergite colour alone yield false positive results. Nevertheless, it is practical because we had no false negative diagnoses either. Nature reserves may be important refuges to protect wild A. m. scutellata populations against imported honeybees.
IMPACT OF HONEY BEE COLONIES OF DIFFERENT RACES ON REARING APIS MELLIFERA LAMARCKII QUEEN LARVAE
Egyptian honey bees Apis mellifera lamarckii is the native honey bee race in Egypt. Strong colony of A. m. lamarckii headed with young open-mated queen that procedure sufficient eggs was used in this study as breeding colony. The rearing colonies of Egyptian honey bees(A. m. lamarckii), Carniolian honey bees(Apis mellifera carnica) and Italian honey bees (Apis mellifera ligustica) were used in this study for rearing Egyptian honey bees grafted larvae. Procedure of Doolittle method for queen rearing was used for grafting 24 h old worker larvae. Acceptance percentage of grafted queen larvae, queen cell size, virgin queen weight, mean number of ovariols and spermatheca volume were determined. Results revealed that reared colonies of A. m. lgustica significantly recorded lowest percentage of accepted grafted larvae, smallest size of queen cell and highest queen weight than the other tested honey bee races. The highest quality of reared queens resulted in A. m. carnica and A. m. lamarckii colonies, that had longest queen cell size, heaviest virgin queen,highest mean number of ovarioles and longest volume of spermatheca.
Journal of Insect Behavior, 2006
The removal of small hive beetle [= SHB] eggs and larvae was studied in queenright and recently queenless Cape honeybee, Apis mellifera capensis, colonies over a range of phenotypes. The overall removal efficiency was not influenced by phenotypes or queenstate, because all introduced eggs and larvae were removed within 24 hours. Queenless colonies removed them merely slower than queenright ones. The latter ones rejected up to 300 larvae within one hour. However, colonies undergoing preparation for absconding did not completely remove SHB offspring, suggesting that removal efficiency was reduced. Since even small and recently queenless colonies effectively removed immature SHB, and no differences in the overall efficiency was found compared to A. m. scutellata we conclude that this defense behavior is well developed in African honeybees.
The responses of Apis mellifera jemenitica to different artificial queen rearing techniques
Apis mellifera jemenitica and artificial queen rearing techniques, 2018
In the current study, we investigated if any variations exist in acceptance rate of grafted larvae and quality of queens reared in different queen cell cup sizes, between wet and dry grafting and between queen right and queen less conditions of A. m. jemenitica colonies. The acceptance rate of grafted larvae in different queen cell cup sizes (7.0 mm, 7.5 mm, 8.0 mm, 8.5 mm) were varying from 69 to 71% and the variations were not significant among the different queen cups sizes but averagely lower than the acceptances recorded for other races. Out of the 172 dry grafted larvae, only 56.4% of them were accepted while in wet grafting out of 174 grafted larvae 77.01% were accepted. Regarding the rate of sealing, 48.84% and 71.84% of them sealed for dry and wet grafts, respectively. The observed variation in the rate of acceptance and sealing were significant (N = 346, df = 1, P < 0.0001) between the two techniques. However, there was no significant difference in fresh weight of emerged queens between the two grafting methods. Out of the 324 grafted larvae given to queen right and queen less starter colonies each; 106 (32.72%) and 252 (73.68%) were accepted in queen right and queen less starter colonies, respectively and the variation was highly significant at P < 0.0001. The total number of sealed pupae were 82 (25.31%) and 216 (63.16%) for queen right and queen less colonies, respectively and the variations was significant at P < 0.0001. From the study it can be concluded that A. m. jemenitica colonies can rear significantly more queens under wet grafting and in queen less colonies conditions than dry grafting and queen right conditions Ó 2019 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Apidologie, 2002
Queenright Apis mellifera capensis colonies exhibit egg laying by workers in periods of both low and high egg removal. To reproduce workers should lay in times of low egg removal to increase survival of their eggs. Were this so, a negative correlation between egg laying and removal would be expected. Egg removal rates for queen (N=240) and worker-laid (N=240) eggs and egg laying by workers were tested in queenright colonies. Worker-laid eggs were removed significantly faster than queen-laid eggs; but significant differences in egg laying by workers occurred among colonies. Egg laying and removal are positively correlated and co-dependent. Egg removal appears triggered by the number of worker-laid eggs. Intercolonial variation for laying worker egg number and egg removal rates may explain the phenotypic variation in worker reproduction in queenright Cape honeybee colonies.
Apidologie, 2004
The removal of small hive beetle [SHB] eggs and larvae was studied in seven Apis mellifera scutellata colonies. Because female beetles can protect their eggs by oviposition in small cracks we introduced unprotected eggs and protected eggs into these colonies. Whereas all unprotected eggs were removed within 24 hours, 66 ± 12% of the protected eggs remained, showing that SHB eggs are likely to hatch in infested colonies. However, all larvae introduced into the same seven colonies were rejected within 24 hours. Workers responded quickly to the presence of SHB offspring in the colonies because 72 ± 27% of the unprotected eggs and 49 ± 37% of the larvae were removed within the first hour after introduction. The removal of SHB eggs and larvae was not correlated with colony phenotypes (size, amount of open and sealed brood, pollen and honey stores). Our data show that African colonies remove both SHB unprotected eggs and larvae within short periods of time. Therefore, we conclude that this removal behavior plays an important role for the apparent resistance of African honeybees towards SHB infestations.