Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T05:24:16.051Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

QUEEN REARING BY HIGH AND LOW QUEEN MANDIBULAR PHEROMONE RESPONDING WORKER HONEY BEES (APIS MELLIFERA L.)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

T. Pankiw
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6

Abstract

Strains of workers that were high or low in their retinue attraction response to queen mandibular pheromone (QMP) in a laboratory bioassay were fostered in queenless colonies to measure their differential queen-rearing behaviors. High-strain workers spent proportionately more time working on and in queen cells than low-strain workers, and there were significant age by strain effects for time spent rearing queen cells. No interindividual differences were detected among the strains in the tendency to rear queens. Results from this experiment suggest that QMP retinue attraction response may be a mechanism upon which selection acts for division of queen-rearing labor.

Résumé

Des souches d’ouvrières qui réagissent fortement ou faiblement à la phéromone mandibulaire de reine (QMP) en laboratoire ont été intégrées à des colonies sans reine afin de mesurer leurs comportements respectifs de soins aux larves de reines. Les ouvrières à forte réaction ont passé une proportion plus importante de leur temps à travailler dans ou sur les cellules royales que les ouvrières à faible réaction et des effets interactifs importants de l’âge et de la souche sur le temps consacré aux cellules royales ont été constatés. Les résultats semblent indiquer que les réactions des ouvrières de la suite royale à la phéromone mandibulaire de reine sont un mécanisme soumis à l’action de la sélection dont l’effet est la division du travail.

[Traduit par la Rédaction]

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Browers, E.V.M., Ebert, R., and Beetsma, J.. 1987. Behavioural and physiological aspects of nurse bees in relation to the composition of larval food during caste differentiation in the honeybee. Journal of Apicultural Research 26: 1123.Google Scholar
Höllodobler, B., and Wilson, E.O.. 1990. The Ants. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Kaminski, L.-A., Slessor, K.N., Winston, M.L., Hay, N.W., and Borden, J.H. 1990. Honey bee response to queen mandibular pheromone in laboratory bioassays. Journal of Chemical Ecology 16: 841850.Google Scholar
Kolmes, S.A. 1985. An information-theory analysis of task specialization among worker honey bees performing hive duties. Animal Behavior 33: 181187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laidlaw, H.H., and Page, R.E.. 1986. Mating designs. pp. 323344in Rinderer, T.E. (Ed.), Bee Genetics and Breeding. Academic Press, Inc., Orlando, FL.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Melathopoulos, A.P., Winston, M.L., Pettis, J.S., and Pankiw, T.. 1996. Effect of queen mandibular pheromone on inhibition and maintenance of queen cells in the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.). The Canadian Entomologist 128: 263272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naumann, K., Winston, M.L., Slessor, K.N., Prestwich, G.D., and Latli, B.. 1992. Intra-nest transmission of aromatic honey bee queen mandibular gland pheromone components: movement as a unit. The Canadian Entomologist 124: 917934.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naumann, K., Winston, M.L., Slessor, K.N., Prestwich, G.D., and Webster, F.X.. 1991. Production and transmission of honey bee queen (Apis mellifera L.) mandibular gland pheromone. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 29: 321332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oldroyd, B.P., Rinderer, T.E., and Buco, S.M.. 1990. Nepotism in honey bees, computer programmes and scientific hypotheses. Nature (London) 346: 707708.Google Scholar
Page, R.E, and Erikson, E.H.. 1984. Selective rearing of queens by worker honey bees: kin or nestmate recognition? Annals of the Entomological Society of America 77: 578580.Google Scholar
Page, R.E., and Robinson, G.E.. 1991. The genetics of division of labour in honey bee colonies. Advances in Insect Physiology 23: 117169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pankiw, T. 1995. Worker responses to, and queen production of, honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) queen mandibular pheromone. Ph.D. thesis, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia.Google Scholar
Pankiw, T., Winston, M.L., and Slessor, K.N.. 1994. Variation in worker response to honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) queen mandibular pheromone. Journal of Insect Behavior 7: 115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pankiw, T., Winston, M.L., and Slessor, K.N.. 1995. Queen attendance behavior of worker honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) that are high and low responding to queen mandibular pheromone. Insectes Sociaux 42: 371378.Google Scholar
Pettis, J.S., Winston, M.L., and Collins, A.M.. 1995. Suppression of emergency queen rearing in Africanized and European honey bees Apis mellifera L. by synthetic queen mandibular gland pheromone. Insectes Sociaux 42: 113121.Google Scholar
Ratnieks, F.L., and Reeve, H.K.. 1992. Conflict in single-queen Hymenopteran societies: the structure of conflict and processes that reduce conflict in advanced eusocial species. Journal of Theoretical Biology 158: 3365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, G.E., Page, R.E., and Arenseu, N.. 1994. Genotypic differences in brood rearing in honey bee colonies: context-specific? Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 34: 125137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sokal, R.R., and Rohlf, F.J.. 1995. Biometry. The Principles and Practice of Statistics in Biological Research. 3rd ed. W.H. Freeman and Co., New York.Google Scholar
Slessor, K.N., Kaminski, L.-A., King, G.G.S., Borden, J.H., and Winston, M.L.. 1988. Semiochemical basis of the retinue response to queen honey bees. Nature (London) 332: 354356.Google Scholar
Visscher, P.K. 1986. Kinship discrimination in queen rearing by honey bees (Apis mellifera). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 18: 453460.Google Scholar
Winston, M.L. 1987. The Biology of the Honey Bee. Haward University Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Winston, M.L., Higo, H.A., Colley, S.J., Pankiw, T., and Slessor, K.N.. 1991. The role of queen mandibular pheromone and colony congestion in honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) reproductive swarming (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Journal of Insect Behavior 4: 649660.Google Scholar
Winston, M.L., Higo, H.A., and Slessor, K.N.. 1990. Effect of various dosages of queen mandibular pheromone on inhibition of queen rearing in the honey bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 83: 234238.Google Scholar
Winston, M.L., and Slessor, K.N.. 1992. The essence of royalty: honey bee queen pheromone. American Scientist 80: 375385.Google Scholar
Winston, M.L., Slessor, K.N., Willis, L.G., Naumann, K., Higo, H.A., Wyborn, M.H., and Kaminski, L.-A.. 1989. The influence of queen mandibular pheromones on worker attraction to swarm clusters and inhibition of queen rearing in the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.). Insectes Sociaux 36: 1527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar