Levels of selection shaping caste interactions during queen replacement in the honey bee, Apis mellifera

Long, Khuat Dang; Cao, T. T.; Keller, Jennifer J.; Shin, Min Chul; Schneider, Stephanie

doi:10.1007/s00040-016-0537-4

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 38 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Results from studies investigating worker bee interactions with nest-mates of other castes (specifically virgin queens and young drones) support the notion that workers can evaluate the quality of reproductive individuals and modify their behavior toward them accordingly 67 , 68 . For example, workers may distribute a greater proportion of their trophallaxis-stimulating vibration signals toward drones with perceived poor flying ability (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

“…lower thorax weight) in order to produce greater numbers of competitive, fit males 68 . In another study, virgin queen survival was positively correlated with worker-queen interactions; and one specific interaction—again, vibration signal—was positively correlated with her fighting ability and number of rivals killed, thereby increasing the chance of a high quality queen becoming the new laying queen of the colony 67 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Robust and high-quality queens are vital for colony growth, survival and reproduction 62 – 66 . Thus, decisions made during the queen production process are extremely important for colony fitness and are likely driven by selection at the colony level, rather than individual level 65 – 67 . It is reasonable, therefore, to presume that honey bees possess the ability to assess larval fitness and select the best larvae from which to raise queens.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Honey bees consider larval nutritional status rather than genetic relatedness when selecting larvae for emergency queen rearing

Sagili

Metz

Lucas

et al. 2018

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In honey bees and many other social insects, production of queens is a vital task, as colony fitness is dependent on queens. The factors considered by honey bee workers in selecting larvae to rear new queens during emergency queen rearing are poorly understood. Identifying these parameters is critical, both in an evolutionary and apicultural context. As female caste development in honey bees is dependent on larval diet (i.e. nutrition), we hypothesized that larval nutritional state is meticulously assessed and used by workers in selection of larvae for queen rearing. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a series of experiments manipulating the nutritional status of one day old larvae by depriving them of brood food for a four-hour period, and then allowing workers to choose larvae for rearing queens from nutritionally deprived and non-deprived larvae. We simultaneously investigated the role of genetic relatedness in selection of larvae for queen rearing. In all the experiments, significantly greater numbers of non-deprived larvae than deprived larvae were selected for queen rearing irrespective of genetic relatedness. Our results demonstrate that honey bees perceive the nutritional state of larvae and use that information when selecting larvae for rearing queens in the natural emergency queen replacement process.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Honey bees consider larval nutritional status rather than genetic relatedness when selecting larvae for emergency queen rearing

Sagili

Metz

Lucas

et al. 2018

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…During emergency queen rearing, nurse bees occasionally prefer construction of queen cells around older worker larvae since they are closer in development to adult emergence. However, more than half of these cells are torn down before emergence (Hatch et al 1999;Tarpy et al 2011;Long et al 2017). Among the HQ groups, acceptance was higher in the JH-only treatment group than in the sugar supplementation treatment group, suggesting that sugar supplementation affects acceptance of treated larvae by the nurse bees within the colony, although our experiment was not designed to test this directly.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental improvement of honey bee (Apis mellifera) queen quality through nutritional and hormonal supplementation

Souza¹,

Huang²

2018

Apidologie

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Queen reproductive potential (=quality) impacts the health and productivity of honey bee colonies. To determine the factors that affect reproductive quality during development, we tested queens produced under larval treatments by supplementing the diet with juvenile hormone (JH), additional sugars, or both, compared to untreated control. Furthermore, we varied the age of the larvae that were grafted (1 and 3 days old). We analyzed newly emerged virgin queens for their morphological characters as proxies for their reproductive potential. We found that the application of a sugar-enriched diet in combination with JH application onto 1st instar queen larvae produced higher-quality queens, while for 3rd instar larvae only the JH treatment resulted in increasing queen quality. For mated queens, those treated with JH plus supplemented sugars showed a significantly higher sperm count and sperm viability. Our findings demonstrate that honey bee queen reproductive potential can be increased through diet supplementation.honeybee queens / queen quality / geometric morphometry / queen larval diet / juvenile hormone

show abstract

“…Allen 17 , 33 , 34 and Hammann 35 noted that honeybees tended to DVAV signal their queens before she was about to leave the hive, taking flight either with a swarm or to mate. With regards to virgin queens, the rate of signalling that they receive has been shown to be positively correlated with fighting success and survival 36 – 38 . Fletcher 39 – 41 also suggested that the rate of which a mated queen receives DVAV signals rises rapidly once queen rearing begins and drops off a few hours prior to swarming.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extensive Vibrational Characterisation and Long-Term Monitoring of Honeybee Dorso-Ventral Abdominal Vibration signals

Ramsey

Bencsik

Newton

2018

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A very common honeybee signal is the dorso-ventral abdominal vibration (DVAV) signal, widely accepted as a modulatory signal meaning: “prepare for greater activity”. In this study, using ultra-sensitive accelerometer technology embedded in the honeycomb, we visually confirm the one-to-one relationship between a DVAV signal being produced and the resulting accelerometer waveform, allowing the measurement of DVAV signals without relying on any visual inspection. We then demonstrate a novel method for the continuous in-situ non-invasive automated monitoring of this honeybee signal, not previously known to induce any vibration into the honeycomb, and most often inaudible to human hearing. We monitored a total of three hives in the UK and France, showing that the signal is very common, highly repeatable and occurs more frequently at night, exhibiting a distinct decrease in instances and increase in amplitude towards mid-afternoon. We also show an unprecedented increase in the cumulative amplitude of DVAV signals occurring in the hours preceding and following a primary swarm. We conclude that DVAV signals may have additional functions beyond solely being a foraging activation signal, and that the amplitude of the signal might be indicative of the switching of its purpose.

show abstract

Levels of selection shaping caste interactions during queen replacement in the honey bee, Apis mellifera

Cited by 7 publications

References 38 publications

Honey bees consider larval nutritional status rather than genetic relatedness when selecting larvae for emergency queen rearing

Honey bees consider larval nutritional status rather than genetic relatedness when selecting larvae for emergency queen rearing

Experimental improvement of honey bee (Apis mellifera) queen quality through nutritional and hormonal supplementation

Extensive Vibrational Characterisation and Long-Term Monitoring of Honeybee Dorso-Ventral Abdominal Vibration signals

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About