Social regulation of egg-laying by queenless honeybee workers (Apis mellifera L.)

Abstract We investigated the rearing of drone larvae grafted in queen cells. From the 1200 drone larvae that were grafted during spring and autumn, 875 were accepted (72.9%) and reared as queens. Drone larvae in false queen cells received royal jelly of the same composition and of the same amounts as queen larvae. Workers capped the queen cells as if they were drones, 9-10 days after the egg laying. Out of 60 accepted false queen cells, 21 (35%) were capped. The shape of false queen cells with drone larvae is unusually long with a characteristically elongate tip which is probably due to the falling of larvae. Bees start the destruction of the cells when the larvae were 3 days old and maximised it before and after capping. Protecting false queen cells in the colony by wrapping, reversing them upside down, or placing in a horizontal position, did not help. The only adult drones that emerged from the false queen cells were those protected in an incubator and in push-in cages. Adult drones from false queen cells had smaller wings, legs, and proboscis than regular drones. The results of this study verify previous reports that the bees do not recognise the different sex of the larvae at least at the early stage of larval development. The late destruction of false queen cells, the similarity in quality and quantity of the produced royal jelly, and the bigger drone cells, allow for the use of drone larvae in cups for the production of royal jelly.

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THE ROLE OF NUTRITION AND TEMPERATURE IN THE OVARIAN DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORKER HONEY BEE (APIS MELLIFERA)

The Canadian Entomologist ◽

10.4039/ent130883-6 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 130 (6) ◽

pp. 883-891 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

Huarong Lin ◽

Mark L. Winston

Keyword(s):

Apis Mellifera ◽

Honey Bee ◽

Nutritive Value ◽

Royal Jelly ◽

Ovarian Development ◽

Egg Laying ◽

Brood Chamber ◽

Laying Workers

AbstractQueenless, caged, newly emerged worker bees (Apis mellifera L.) were fed honey, 22 and 40% pollen in honey, and 22 and 40% royal jelly in honey for 14 days. Workers fed royal jelly, pollen, and honey had large, medium, and small ovaries, respectively. Royal jelly had higher nutritive value for workers’ ovarian development than did pollen, possibly because royal jelly is predigested by nurse bees and easily used by adult and larval bees. These results suggest that nurse bees could mediate workers’ ovarian development in colonies via trophallactic exchange of royal jelly. Six levels of royal jelly in honey, 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100% (royal jelly without honey), were tested for their effects on workers’ ovarian development and mortality for 10 days. High levels of royal jelly increased ovarian development, but also increased worker mortality. All caged bees treated with 100% royal jelly died within 3 days. When workers were incubated at 20, 27, and 34 °C for 10 days, only bees at 34 °C developed ovaries. These findings suggest that nurse bees functioning as units which digest pollen and produce royal jelly may feed some potentially egg-laying workers in a brood chamber with royal jelly when a queen is lost in a colony. Feeding workers a diet of 50% royal jelly in honey and incubating at 34 °C for 10 days is recommended for tests of ovarian development.

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Varroa destructor (Acari: Varroidae) infestation in queen, worker, and drone brood of Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

The Canadian Entomologist ◽

10.4039/ent134381-3 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 134 (3) ◽

pp. 381-390 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

M.T. Santillán-Galicia ◽

G. Otero-Colina ◽

C. Romero-Vera ◽

J. Cibrián-Tovar

Keyword(s):

Apis Mellifera ◽

Varroa Destructor ◽

Egg Laying ◽

Choice Test ◽

Simultaneous Test ◽

Adult Females ◽

Drone Brood ◽

Worker Brood

AbstractVarroa destructor Anderson and Trueman females were placed in contact with queen, worker, and drone brood cells of Apis mellifera L. that were soon to be sealed. In a non-choice test, V. destructor adult females were introduced into a comb containing either queen or worker brood cells; 0.62 and 18.28% of the mites entered the queen and worker brood cells, respectively. Only 1 of the 11 mites that entered queen brood cells oviposited, laying a single egg. In another test, brood cells were combined in the same comb in a 1:25:3 queen:worker:drone ratio. The percentages of egg-laying mites in queen, worker, and drone brood cells were 16.66, 61.86, and 79.06%, respectively. When queen, worker, and drone brood cells were combined in equal proportions (33.3:33.3:33.3), percent infestation was significantly different among queen (3.25%), worker (49.12%), and drone (90.07%) brood. Multiple infestation was found in drone brood cells but not in others. Also, mites were inoculated into sealed queen cells. These cells contained either one or two mites (either at the egg or protonymph stage). Conversely, in a simultaneous test with worker brood cells, the offspring per foundress mite included a mean of three individuals (either at the egg, protonymph, or deutonymph stage). It is concluded that V. destructor can infest queen, worker, and drone brood cells, but drone brood cells are preferred; in addition, queen brood cells do not provide an optimal environment for reproduction because it causes a delay in mite oviposition and (or) progeny development.

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THE INFLUENCE OF A HONEYBEE (APIS MELLIFERA) COLONY ON EGG-LAYING BY ITS QUEEN

Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata ◽

10.1111/j.1570-7458.1972.tb00200.x ◽

1972 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 224-228 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

J. B. FREE ◽

INGRID H. WILLIAMS

Keyword(s):

Apis Mellifera ◽

Egg Laying

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Position of the Honeybee Queen, Apis mellifera, during Egg-Laying (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Entomologia Generalis ◽

10.1127/entom.gen/15/1990/161 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 15 (3) ◽

pp. 161-165 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Richard Fleig

Keyword(s):

Apis Mellifera ◽

Egg Laying ◽

Honeybee Queen

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Successful Indoor Mass Storage of Honeybee Queens (Apis mellifera) during Winter

Agriculture ◽

10.3390/agriculture11050402 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (5) ◽

pp. 402

Author(s):

Andrée Rousseau ◽

Pierre Giovenazzo

Keyword(s):

Apis Mellifera ◽

Cluster Formation ◽

Egg Laying ◽

Sperm Viability ◽

Mass Storage ◽

Honeybee Queen ◽

Commercial Scale ◽

Cluster Temperature ◽

Different Temperatures

The production of young, mated honeybee queens (Apis mellifera) is essential to replace dead queens or to start new colonies after wintering. Mass storage of mated honeybee queens during winter and their use the following spring is an interesting strategy that could help fulfill this need. In this study, we investigated the survival, fertility, and fecundity of young, mated queens stored massively in queenless colonies from September to April (eight months). The queens were kept in environmentally controlled rooms at temperatures above and below cluster formation. The results show that indoor mass storage of mated queens can be achieved with success when queen banks are stored above cluster temperature. Significantly higher survival of queens was measured when wintering queen banks at 16 °C. Surviving queens wintered at different temperatures above or below cluster formation had similar fertility (sperm viability) and fecundity (egg laying and viable worker population). This study shows the potential of indoor overwintering of honeybee queen banks. The technique we describe could be applied on a commercial scale by beekeepers and queen breeders.

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INFLUENCE OF AGE AND POPULATION SIZE ON OVARIAN DEVELOPMENT, AND OF TROPHALLAXIS ON OVARIAN DEVELOPMENT AND VITELLOGENIN TITRES OF QUEENLESS WORKER HONEY BEE (HYMENOPTERA: APIDAE)

The Canadian Entomologist ◽

10.4039/ent131695-5 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 131 (5) ◽

pp. 695-706 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Huarong Lin ◽

Mark L. Winston ◽

Norbert H. Haunerland ◽

Keith N. Slessor

Keyword(s):

Apis Mellifera ◽

Honey Bee ◽

Honey Bees ◽

Royal Jelly ◽

Ovarian Development ◽

Egg Laying ◽

Direct Access ◽

Ovary Development ◽

Dominance Status ◽

Access To Food

AbstractWe examined the factors that might influence ovary development in worker honey bees, Apis mellifera L. Queenless workers at different ages (≤ 12 h, and 4, 8, and 21 d) were tested in cages for ovarian development. Newly emerged, 4- and 8-d-old, and 21-d-old workers had medium-, large-, and small-sized ovaries, respectively, suggesting that of the worker ages tested only 4- and 8-d-old workers are likely to become egg layers in a queenless colony. Also, we compared ovarian development of newly emerged workers that were caged for 14 d and allowed to consume either pollen or royal jelly to that of another group of workers similarly caged but screened so that they could only obtain food via trophallaxis from young bees. Ovaries of newly emerged workers that received food from young bees were as well developed as those of newly emerged workers allowed to take pollen or royal jelly directly. Screened workers also had lower but still elevated vitellogenin levels compared with bees having direct access to food. These results indicate that nurse-age bees functioning as pollen-digesting units affect the ovarian development of other workers and to a lesser extent vitellogenesis via food exchange. We compared the influence of group sizes of 25, 125, and 600 bees per cage on ovarian development for 14 d. The two groups of 25 and 125 bees had similar mean ovary scores, and higher scores than a group of 600 bees. Our findings suggest that nurse-age bees could play an important role in mediating worker fertility via trophallaxis, possibly by differentiating worker dominance status, and generally only young workers become fertile when a queen is lost in a colony. Vitellogenin is a more sensitive parameter to measure bee fertility, and might be a useful tool to further explore ovary development and egg laying in worker social insects. We recommend measuring haemolymph vitellogenin titres and (or) oocyte length of workers in a group of 25 bees per cage, supplied with 50% royal jelly in honey as a standard method to assess honey bee worker fertility in future experiments.

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The microRNA miR-14 Regulates Egg-Laying by Targeting EcR in Honeybees (Apis mellifera)

Insects ◽

10.3390/insects12040351 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 351

Author(s):

Xiao Chen ◽

Jinluan Fu

Keyword(s):

Apis Mellifera ◽

Cross Talk ◽

Target Gene ◽

Oviposition Behavior ◽

Critical Role ◽

Egg Laying ◽

Luciferase Assay ◽

Biological Processes ◽

Honey Production ◽

Bee Colony

Honeybees (Apis mellifera) are important pollinators and are commonly used for honey production. The oviposition behavior in honeybees is complex and errors in oviposition could affect the development of the bee colony. Recent studies reported that RNA–RNA cross-talk played a critical role in several biological processes, including reproduction. Ecdysone receptor (EcR) and miR-14 were previously reported to play important roles in egg-laying. Moreover, EcR was predicted to be the target gene of miR-14 and may form miR-14-EcR cross-talk. In this study, knocking down and overexpression of miR-14 and EcR in queen model were implemented. The effect of RNA expression of miR-14 and EcR on the number of eggs laid by honeybee queens were analyzed. Further, luciferase assay was used to confirm the target relation between miR-14 and 3′UTR of EcR. The results showed that the expression of miR-14 and EcR was associated with the number of eggs laid by queens. In specific, inhibition of miR-14 expression enhanced the number of eggs laid, while overexpression of EcR enhanced the number of eggs laid. Lastly, we determined that miR-14 directly targets the mRNA of EcR. These findings suggest that the cross-talk of miR-14-EcR plays an important role in the number of eggs laid by honeybee queens.

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