Drifting bumble bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) workers in commercial greenhouses may be social parasites

Birmingham, Anna L; Hoover, Shelley E; Winston, Mark L.; Ydenberg, Ron

doi:10.1139/z04-181

Cited by 53 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…In accordance with recent reports [1,31], our observations lend thus credence to the idea that drifting may be a much more complex phenomenon than previously thought. Because it possibly increases the host's fitness through an increase in working force, the non-null background rate of drifting in infertile workers could explain the commonly described high social tolerance of bumblebee colonies [5,32,33]. Such an open colony structure would have provided the ideal ground for the evolution of drifting for direct reproduction in fertile bumblebees.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drifting behaviour as an alternative reproductive strategy for social insect workers

et al. 2013

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Restricted reproduction is traditionally posited as the defining feature of eusocial insect workers. The discovery of worker reproduction in foreign colonies challenges this view and suggests that workers' potential to pursue selfish interests may be higher than previously believed. However, whether such reproductive behaviour truly relies on a reproductive decision is still unknown. Workers' reproductive decisions thus need to be investigated to assess the extent of workers' reproductive options. Here, we show in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris that drifting is a distinct strategy by which fertile workers circumvent competition in their nest and reproduce in foreign colonies. By monitoring workers' movements between colonies, we show that drifting is a remarkably dynamic behaviour, widely expressed by both fertile and infertile workers. We demonstrate that a high fertility is, however, central in determining the propensity of workers to enter foreign colonies as well as their subsequent reproduction in host colonies. Moreover, our study shows that the drifting of fertile workers reflects complex decision-making processes associated with in-nest reproductive competition. This novel finding therefore adds to our modern conception of cooperation by showing the previously overlooked importance of alternative strategies which enable workers to assert their reproductive interests.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drifting behaviour as an alternative reproductive strategy for social insect workers

et al. 2013

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“…Drifting, the phenomenon whereby insect workers from one colony find their way into a foreign colony, is widespread among bees and wasps (Apis mellifera-Free 1958; Neumann et al 2001;Chapman et al 2010; Apis dorsata- Moritz et al 1995;Paar et al 2002;Lasioglossum malachurum-Paxton et al 2002;Bombus terrestrisLopez-Vaamonde et al 2004; Bombus impatiens and Bombus occidentalis- Birmingham et al 2004; Apis florea- Nanork et al 2005;Chapman et al 2009a; Apis cerana- Nanork et al 2007; Polistes canadensis -Sumner et al 2007; Halictus scabiosae -Ulrich et al 2009). In some cases, this drifting may be an adaptive behavior of social parasites seeking to reproduce in foreign colonies (e.g., Neumann et al 2001;Lopez-Vaamonde et al 2004;reviewed in Beekman and Oldroyd 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Caught in an evolutionary trap: worker honey bees that have drifted into foreign colonies do not invest in ovary activation

Smith

Loope

2015

Insect. Soc.

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Drifting, the phenomenon whereby workers from one colony find their way into a foreign colony, is widespread in social insects. In apiaries of the honey bee Apis mellifera, orientation errors lead to high rates of worker drift. Given that A. mellifera workers in apiaries enter foreign colonies accidentally, do they continue to refrain from laying eggs in the foreign colony, or do they behave in their evolutionary interests and attempt to lay eggs? We propose two hypotheses: the ''lost losers'' hypothesis, where lost workers do not invest in personal reproduction, and the ''lost social parasites'' hypothesis, where lost workers detect that they are in a foreign colony and do invest in personal reproduction. Previous work has used complete ovary activation as an assay for testing whether workers invest in personal reproduction, but this may not detect subtle reproductive investments in queenright colonies. We instead look at the full range of ovary activation in natal and non-natal workers, because partial activation may signal preparation for future reproduction. We show that in queenright colonies, non-natal workers have the same low degree of ovary activation as their natal counterparts, which supports the hypothesis that drifted bees are ''lost losers'' caught in an evolutionary trap.

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“…The importance of WRP as a reproductive option for insect workers is becoming increasingly recognized, as is the necessity of colony-level defense strategies against such parasitism (Neumann et al, 2001;Birmingham et al, 2004;Lopez-Vaamonde et al, 2004;Nanork et al, 2005;Hartel et al, 2006a;2006b;. Much of this research has centered on the honey bee (Apis spp.).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nestmate recognition by guards of the Asian hive bee Apis cerana

et al. 2008

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When a honey bee colony becomes queenless and broodless its only reproductive option is for some of its workers to produce sons before the colony perishes. However, for this to be possible the policing of workerlaid eggs must be curtailed and this provides the opportunity for queenless colonies to be reproductively parasitized by workers from other nests. Such reproductive parasitism is known to occur in Apis florea and A. cerana. Microsatellite analyses of worker samples have demonstrated that the proportion of non-natal workers present in an A. cerana colony declines after a colony is made queenless. This observation suggests that queenless A. cerana colonies may be more vigilant in repelling potentially parasitic non-natal workers than queenright colonies. We compared rates of nestmate and nonnestmate acceptance in both queenright and queenless A. cerana colonies using standard assays and showed that there is no statistical difference between the proportion of non-nestmate workers that are rejected in queenless and queenright colonies. We also show that, contrary to earlier reports, A. cerana guards are able to discriminate nestmate workers from non-nestmates, and that they reject significantly more non-nestmate workers than nestmate workers.

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Drifting bumble bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) workers in commercial greenhouses may be social parasites

Cited by 53 publications

References 37 publications

Drifting behaviour as an alternative reproductive strategy for social insect workers

Drifting behaviour as an alternative reproductive strategy for social insect workers

Caught in an evolutionary trap: worker honey bees that have drifted into foreign colonies do not invest in ovary activation

Nestmate recognition by guards of the Asian hive bee Apis cerana

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