Evaluation of the defensive behavior of two honeybee ecotypes using a laboratory test

Abstract

Honeybee defensive behavior is a useful selection criterion, especially in areas with Africanized honeybees (Apis mellifera L). In all genetic improvement programs the selected characters must be measured with precision, and because of this we evaluated a metabolic method for testing honeybee defensive behavior in the laboratory for its usefulness in distinguishing between honeybee ecotypes and selecting honeybees based on their level of defensive responses. Ten honeybee colonies were used, five having been produced by feral queens from a subtropical region supposedly colonized by Africanized honeybees and five by queens from a temperate region apparently colonized by European honeybees. We evaluate honeybee defensive behavior using a metabolic test based on oxygen consumption after stimulation with an alarm pheromone, measuring the time to the first response, time to maximum oxygen consumption, duration of activity, oxygen consumption at first response, maximum oxygen consumption and total oxygen consumption, colonies being ranked according to the values obtained for each variable. Significant (p < 0.05) differences were detected between ecotypes for each variable but for all variables the highest rankings were obtained for colonies of subtropical origin, which had faster and more intense responses. All variables were highly associated (p < 0.05). Total oxygen consumption was the best indicator of metabolic activity for defensive behavior because it combined oxygen consumption and the length of the response. This laboratory method may be useful for evaluating the defensive behavior of honey bees in genetic programs designed to select less defensive bees.

DEFENSIVEBEHAVIOR OFHONEYBEES: Organization, Genetics, and Comparisons with Other Bees

“…Counts of stings in targets, responsiveness to alarm pheromone, and stinging behavior by bees confined in an observation arena ("box") were less repeatable when applied more than once to a set of colonies. Some studies have compared metabolic expenditure of a group of bees prior to perception of a threat of non-nestmate bee odor or of alarm pheromone with metabolic expenditure after perception; this removes bees from the field context but gives a precise quantitative measure (4,5,97). Group measures may be subject to nonlinear effects owing to interactions among workers (95).…”

Flight and fight: A comparative view of the neurophysiology and genetics of honey bee defensive behavior

“…Interestingly, mixtures of genotypes sometimes resulted in nonadditive interactions (Moritz and Southwick, 1987). The metabolic assay has been refined and used to evaluate the defensive behavior of AHB (Andere et al, 2002). High-defensive AHB also have an inherently higher respiration rate than EHB, but whether this difference is relevant to defensive behavior is unknown (Southwick, 1990;Harrison and Hall, 1993;Harrison et al, 2005).…”

Behavioral genomics of honeybee foraging and nest defense

“…This pheromone blend is released from the sting apparatus during the act of stinging and as guards extrude their stings at the colony entrance in response to relevant stimuli. A transient increase in metabolic rate occurs after exposure of bees to alarm pheromone, and this increased rate genetically correlates with the defensiveness of colonies (Southwick and Moritz 1985; Moritz and Southwick 1987; Andere et al 2002). Although the alarm pheromone components vary with strains of bees, QTLs influencing this variation were distinct from QTLs influencing stinging behavior (Hunt et al 1999, 2003).…”