The role of wax comb in honey bee nestmate recognition

Breed, Michael D.; Garry, Melissa F.; Pearce, Alison N; Hibbard, Bruce E.; Bjostad, L. B.; Page, Robert E.

doi:10.1006/anbe.1995.0263

Cited by 110 publications

(74 citation statements)

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“…Nestmate recognition is based on the perception of chemical cues carried by the arriving bee (cuticular hydrocarbons, especially alkenes) (Dani et al, 2005;Pradella et al, 2015). These cuticular cues have both a genetic component (Breed, 1983;Getz and Smith, 1983;Page et al, 1991) and an environmental component acquired inside the hive by contact with the comb wax (Breed et al, 1995d'Ettorre et al, 2006;Downs and Ratnieks, 1999). Interestingly, emerging bees present a 'blank slate' protecting them from expulsion during the short delay before they are endowed with the proper cues (Breed et al, 2004c).…”

Section: Division Of Labour During Colony Defencementioning

confidence: 99%

The defensive response of the honeybee Apis mellifera

Nouvian

Reinhard

Giurfa

2016

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Honeybees (Apis mellifera) are insects living in colonies with a complex social organization. Their nest contains food stores in the form of honey and pollen, as well as the brood, the queen and the bees themselves. These resources have to be defended against a wide range of predators and parasites, a task that is performed by specialized workers, called guard bees. Guards tune their response to both the nature of the threat and the environmental conditions, in order to achieve an efficient trade-off between defence and loss of foraging workforce. By releasing alarm pheromones, they are able to recruit other bees to help them handle large predators. These chemicals trigger both rapid and longer-term changes in the behaviour of nearby bees, thus priming them for defence. Here, we review our current understanding on how this sequence of events is performed and regulated depending on a variety of factors that are both extrinsic and intrinsic to the colony. We present our current knowledge on the neural bases of honeybee aggression and highlight research avenues for future studies in this area. We present a brief overview of the techniques used to study honeybee aggression, and discuss how these could be used to gain further insights into the mechanisms of this behaviour.

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Section: Division Of Labour During Colony Defencementioning

confidence: 99%

The defensive response of the honeybee Apis mellifera

Nouvian

Reinhard

Giurfa

2016

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…The wax comb is a very important source of odorants for nestmate recognition in honey bees (Breed et al, 1995) and may provide a similar cue for bumblebees by enhancing their ability to identify invaders by amplifying the colony odour and reinforcing the recognition template. Queens and workers have glands in the ventral abdomen that secrete wax which is used to create comb and may contain odorants that contribute to the "gestalt" odour of the colony.…”

Section: Influence Of Combmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bumblebee inquilinism in Bombus�(Fernaldaepsithyrus) sylvestris (Hymenoptera, Apidae): behavioural and chemical analyses of host-parasite interactions

et al. 2005

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-The bumblebee Bombus sylvestris is an obligate social inquiline of B. pratorum and nestinvading females are known to integrate themselves into host colonies, usually without any aggression. We investigated whether cuticular compounds could be involved in discrimination processes in common bumblebees, and whether they play a role in the social integration of inquilines in host nests. We tested nestmate recognition in B. terrestris workers, and analysed cuticular chemical profiles of hairs taken from allocolonial individuals. Bumblebees belonging to the same colony shared a common odour. Then, we investigated how B. sylvestris females integrated into colonies of natural and non-natural hosts, B. pratorum and B. terrestris, respectively. Inquiline females apparently succeeded in entering a host colony by expressing non-aggressive behaviours and had no chemical signature; subsequently, acquisition of a chemical signature similar to the host colony might facilitate their integration into the host nest.Bombus sylvestris / inquilinism / discrimination process / chemical signature / non-aggressive strategy

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“…A specific lipid-based chemical composition of beeswax plays an important role in a honeybee colony as a source of nest-mate recognition cues and as construction material for honeycomb cells where honey and brood are being capped (Breed et al, 1995;Fröhlich et al, 2000;D'Ettorre et al, 2006;Buchwald et al, 2009). It is, therefore, important that the foundations on which the honeycombs will be built are genuine.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Approach for Routine Analytical Detection of Beeswax Adulteration Using FTIR-ATR Spectroscopy

Svečnjak

Baranović

Vinceković

et al. 2015

Journal of Apicultural Science

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A b s t r a c t Although beeswax adulteration represents one of the main beeswax quality issues, there are still no internationally standardised analytical methods for routine quality control. The objective of this study was to establish an analytical procedure suitable for routine detection of beeswax adulteration using FTIR-ATR spectroscopy. For the purpose of this study, reference IR spectra of virgin beeswax, paraffin, and their mixtures containing different proportions of paraffin (5 -95%), were obtained. Mixtures were used for the establishment of calibration curves. To determine the prediction strength of IR spectral data for the share of paraffin in mixtures, the Partial Least Squares Regression method was used. The same procedure was conducted on beeswax-beef tallow mixtures. The model was validated using comb foundation samples of an unknown chemical background which had been collected from the international market (n = 56). Selected physico-chemical parameters were determined for comparison purposes. Results revealed a strong predictive power (R 2 = 0.999) of IR spectra for the paraffin and beef tallow share in beeswax. The results also revealed that the majority of the analysed samples (89%) were adulterated with paraffin; only 6 out of 56 (11%) samples were identified as virgin beeswax, 28% of the samples exhibited a higher level of paraffin adulteration (>46% of paraffin), while the majority of the analysed samples (50%) were found to be adulterated with 5 -20% of paraffin. These results indicate an urgent need for routine beeswax authenticity control.In this study, we demonstrated that the analytical approach defining the standard curves for particular adulteration levels in beeswax, based on chemometric modelling of specific IR spectral region indicative for adulteration, enables reliable determination of the adulterant proportions in beeswax.

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The role of wax comb in honey bee nestmate recognition

Cited by 110 publications

References 0 publications

The defensive response of the honeybee Apis mellifera

The defensive response of the honeybee Apis mellifera

Bumblebee inquilinism in Bombus�(Fernaldaepsithyrus) sylvestris (Hymenoptera, Apidae): behavioural and chemical analyses of host-parasite interactions

An Approach for Routine Analytical Detection of Beeswax Adulteration Using FTIR-ATR Spectroscopy

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