Seasonal variation in defense behavior in European and scutellata-hybrid honey bees (Apis mellifera) in Southern California

Abstract

Nest defense in the honey bee (Apis mellifera) is a complex collective behavior modulated by various interacting social, environmental, and genetic factors. Scutellata-hybrid (“Africanized”) honey bees are usually considered to be far more defensive than European honey bees which are therefore preferred for commercial and hobbyist beekeeping. In the most recent zone of scutellata hybridization, the southern USA, the degree to which this defensiveness differs among current strains, and the extent to which defensiveness varies across a season has not been measured. We quantified the levels of A. m. scutellata ancestry in colonies and conducted a seasonal assessment (May through November) of colony nest defensiveness in feral scutellata-hybrid and a popular lineage of European honey bee commonly used in managed environments (sold as A. mellifera ligustica) hives at two apiaries in Southern California. Standard measures of defensiveness were low in both scutellata-hybrid and European colonies during May. Defensiveness increased during the later months of the study in scutellata-hybrid colonies. Most measures of defensiveness did not increase in managed colonies. Defensiveness in the scutellata-hybrids appears lower than what has been previously documented in Brazil and Mexico, possibly due to their lower proportion of A. m. scutellata ancestry.

Aggressive dominance of acacia floral resources by wild east African lowland honey bees

“…Schneider & McNally, 1992a, 1992b; Tarakini et al., 2021), which extends from southern Ethiopia, southwards and westwards through Kenya and Tanzania, and down into southern Africa, where it is replaced by the Cape Honey Bee ( Apis mellifera capensis Eschscholtz, 1822). Although A. m. scutellata is reported as being more aggressive when defending its colonies than A. m. mellifera , there have been few direct observations of this in wild colonies in Africa (Kastberger et al., 2009; Schneider & McNally, 1992b; Zarate et al., 2023). This is an important gap in our knowledge given that A. m. scutellata is one of the progenitor taxa of the aggressive ‘Africanized’ honey bees in North and South America, which may outcompete native bees and cause human deaths (Calfee et al., 2020; Franca et al., 1994; Kono & Kohn, 2015; Roubik, 1978; Roubik et al., 1986).…”