Cornual secretion on the endophallus of the honeybee drone (Apis mellifera L)

Koeniger, Gudrun; Wissel, M.; Herth, W.

doi:10.1051/apido:19900303

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Specific experimental manipulations would be needed to test the relative importance of internal, external, and social factors for the timing of drone hyperactivity. There is suggestive evidence that internal factors determine flight time in drones; researchers used a flight room to clock-shift drones, and found that when moved outdoors, the drones retained their clock-shifted departure time (Pfannenstiel and Koeniger, 2000). These findings, however, were published as an abstract, and so would need to be confirmed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Honey bee drones are synchronously hyperactive inside the nest

et al. 2023

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Honey bee drones are synchronously hyperactive inside the nest

et al. 2023

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“…In all the examined drones, the colour of the cornua was checked. It was assumed that in immature drones the cornua are transparent, whereas in mature drones they are orange (Koeniger et al, 1990). Semen was collected in a calibrated microcapillary from each drone which everted its endophallus.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Ability of Honey Bee Drones to Ejaculate

Czekońska

Chuda-Mickiewicz

2015

Journal of Apicultural Science

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A b s t r a c t The effectiveness of two methods of collecting semen from honeybee Apis mellifera drones was compared, and the reasons for problems with ejaculating semen were analysed. Among 275 drones, 100 were stimulated to release semen using a manual method, 100 with the use of chloroform, and from 75 drones the reproductive organs were dissected for analysis and evaluation. It was found that the principal causes of problems that drones had with ejaculating their semen were anatomical changes or a delay in the development of the mucus glands. It was also found that the method employing chloroform was less efficient in the first phase of eversion of the endophallus, compared with the manual method. The method with the use of chloroform allows the determination of the proportion of drones, which do not evert the endophallus because of poor or delayed development of mucus glands, as well as the proportion of drones which evert the organ, but do not ejaculate semen because of the absence of semen in the seminal vesicles.Keywords: Apis mellifera, drone, eversion, reproductive organ. INTRODUCTIONIn a honeybee colony drones are responsible for producing semen and transmitting it to the queen during copulation. In drones, the spermatozoa are produced in the pre-imago stage of development. In the first days of a drone's life the spermatozoa are moved from the testes to the seminal vesicles, where they are stored until mating. Immediately after emerging from the cells, drones are not able to copulate. They reach the ability to mate in 9 -12 days after emergence (Bishop, 1920;Ruttner and Tryasko, 1976). Drones mate with the queen at the age of 15 -23 days, the average being 21 days (Couvillon et al., 2010). Because of the limited number of young queens, only a few drones have the chance to pass on their semen during copulation. The majority of drones die because of age, diseases, or predators (Free and Williams, 1975;Fukuda and Ohtani, 1977;Rueppell et al., 2005;Boes, 2010). A drone does not survive copulation (Witherell, 1965). On average, the drones that do not have the chance to copulate with a queen live 30 days (Rueppell et al., 2005). Colonies differ in terms of the number of drones reared and their reproductive activity (Kraus et al., 2003;Boes, 2010). The reproductive success of drones depends much on the size of the colony and the conditions prevailing during rearing and maturing (Jaycox, 1961;Boes, 2010;Bieńkowska et al., 2011;Mazeed, 2011;Abdelkader et al.;. The drones reared in larger colonies achieve greater reproductive success; more often copulate with the queen, and also have a larger share in the number of offspring (Kraus et al., 2003). The drones reared under optimum thermal and feeding conditions have greater chance of mating (Jaycox, 1961;Rueppell et al., 2006;Czekońska et al., 2013). Drones reared in colonies of different quality, differ in the age when they reach the ability to copulate with the queen (Rhodes et al., 2011;Czekońska et al., 2015). Therefore, in practice, the age of drones is not...

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“…Starting at three days of age, spermatozoa are transferred to the seminal vesicles and reach their highest number when the drones turn 8 to 12 days old, depending on the studies [ 18 , 60 ]. The secretions of endophallus accessory glands, including mucus and corneal glands, also mature, being fully functional at 9–12 days [ 18 , 61 , 62 ]. Taken together, data on sperm maturation and flight activity both suggest that drones are not fully sexually operational before 10–12 days of age.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age-specific olfactory attraction between Western honey bee drones (Apis mellifera) and its chemical basis

et al. 2017

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During the mating season, drones (males) of the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) form congregations numbering thousands high in the air. Virgin queens arrive at these congregations after they have formed and mate on the fly with 15-20 drones. To explain the formation of drone congregations, a drone-produced aggregation pheromone has been proposed many years ago but due to the low accessibility of natural mating sites in bees, its study has progressed slowly. Recently, we used a walking simulator in controlled laboratory conditions to show that drones are indeed attracted by groups of other drones. Since these previous experiments were carried out with drones captured when flying out of the hive, it is currently unclear if this olfactory attraction behaviour is related to the drones’ sexual maturity (usually reached between 9 and 12 days) and may thus be indicative of a possible role in congregation formation, or if it is observed at any age and may represent in-hive aggregation. We thus assessed here the dependency of drone olfactory attraction on their age. First, we performed behavioural experiments in the walking simulator to measure olfactory preferences of drones in three age groups from 2-3 to 12-15 days. Then, we performed chemical analyses in the same age groups to evaluate whether chemical substances produced by the drones may explain age differences in olfactory attraction. We show that honey bee drones are attracted by conspecifics of the same age when they are sexually mature (12-15 days old) but not when they are younger (2-3 and 7-8 days old). In parallel, our data show that drones’ chemical profile changes with age, including its most volatile fraction. These results are discussed in the context of drone mutual attraction both within the hive and at drone congregations.

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Cornual secretion on the endophallus of the honeybee drone (Apis mellifera L)

Cited by 7 publications

References 4 publications

Honey bee drones are synchronously hyperactive inside the nest

Honey bee drones are synchronously hyperactive inside the nest

The Ability of Honey Bee Drones to Ejaculate

Age-specific olfactory attraction between Western honey bee drones (Apis mellifera) and its chemical basis

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