Attraction and Repellence of Workers by the Honeybee Queen (Apis mellifera L.)

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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Absence of Nepotism in Waggle Communication of Honeybees (Apis mellifera)

Journal of Apicultural Science ◽

10.2478/jas-2020-0021 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

Zu Yun Zhang ◽

Zhen Li ◽

Qiang Huang ◽

Wu Jun Jiang ◽

Zhi Jiang Zeng

Keyword(s):

Apis Mellifera ◽

Genetic Variability ◽

Mating Behavior ◽

Genetic Predisposition ◽

Microsatellite Dna ◽

Kin Recognition ◽

Natural Conditions ◽

Dna Analyses ◽

Honeybee Queen ◽

Dance Communication

AbstractThe polyandrous mating behavior of the honeybee queen increases the genetic variability among her worker offspring and the workers of particular subfamilies tend to have a genetic predisposition for tasks preference. In this study, we intended to understand whether there is nepotism in dance communication of honeybees during natural conditions. Microsatellite DNA analyses revealed a total of fourteen and twelve subfamilies in two colonies. The subfamily composition of the dancer and the followers did not deviate from random. The majority of the subfamilies did not show kin recognition in dance-recruit communication in honeybee colonies, but some subfamilies showed significant nepotism for workers to follow their super-sister dancer. Because it seems unlikely that honeybee would change the tendency to follow dancers due to the degree of relatedness, we conclude that honeybees randomly follow a dancer in order to e benefit colony gain and development.

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A stereological analysis of developing egg chambers in the honeybee queen, Apis mellifera

Cell and Tissue Research ◽

10.1007/bf00234170 ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 208 (1) ◽

pp. 29-33 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Joseph Torres

Keyword(s):

Apis Mellifera ◽

Stereological Analysis ◽

Honeybee Queen ◽

Egg Chambers

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Differentiation Processes of the Ocellar Retina of the Honeybee (Apis Mellifera L.)

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100159692 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 48 (3) ◽

pp. 430-431

Author(s):

Maria Anna Pabst

Keyword(s):

Apis Mellifera ◽

Distal Part ◽

Cell Layer ◽

Single Layer ◽

Photoreceptor Cells ◽

Distal Segment ◽

Compound Eyes ◽

Thin Sections ◽

Ultrastructural Studies ◽

Adult Worker

In addition to the compound eyes, honeybees have three dorsal ocelli on the vertex of the head. Each ocellus has about 800 elongated photoreceptor cells. They are paired and the distal segment of each pair bears densely packed microvilli forming together a platelike fused rhabdom. Beneath a common cuticular lens a single layer of corneagenous cells is present.Ultrastructural studies were made of the retina of praepupae, different pupal stages and adult worker bees by thin sections and freeze-etch preparations. In praepupae the ocellar anlage consists of a conical group of epidermal cells that differentiate to photoreceptor cells, glial cells and corneagenous cells. Some photoreceptor cells are already paired and show disarrayed microvilli with circularly ordered filaments inside. In ocelli of 2-day-old pupae, when a retinogenous and a lentinogenous cell layer can be clearly distinguished, cell membranes of the distal part of two photoreceptor cells begin to interdigitate with each other and so start to form the definitive microvilli. At the beginning the microvilli often occupy the whole width of the developing rhabdom (Fig. 1).

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