Open Access
Behavioural characteristics of honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies containing mix of workers of divergent behavioural traits.
Jerzy Paleolog
- Vol. 27, Iss: 3, pp 237-248
TLDR
Defence behaviour (sting test), hygienic behaviour (needle test) and syrup foraging rate were studied in honey bee colonies artificially made up of defensive and gentle bees and were compared with homogenous colonies made up only of either defensive or gentle bees.Abstract:
Defence behaviour (sting test), hygienic behaviour (needle test) and syrup foraging rate were studied in honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies artificially made up of defensive and gentle bees (1:1), and were compared with homogenous colonies made up only of either defensive or gentle bees. The defensive bees turned out to be high-hygienic whereas the gentle bees were low-hygienic. The mixed colonies were defensive in terms of time to the first sting, but gentle or intermediate in terms of the number of stings. Colonies of mixed high-hygienic (defensive) and low-hygienic (gentle) bees were found to be intermediate or high-hygienic when they were monitored after a period of 12 or 24 h, respectively. Foraging rate was also markedly differentiated in homogenous colonies. The colonies with a mixture of good and poor foragers exhibited a poor foraging rate. Repeatability of the monitored traits was higher in the 100% defensive/high-hygienic colonies (higher genetic effect) than in 100% gentle/low-hygienic colonies. Efficient workers performed tasks by themselves and did not solicit help from non-efficient workers. Results of combining of different bee types occurred different. Interworker interactions were mostly non-additive for foraging and defensive behaviour, but additive for hygienic behaviour.read more
Citations
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References
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Book ChapterDOI
The Genetics of Division of Labour in Honey Bee Colonies
Robert E. Page,Gene E. Robinson +1 more
TL;DR: This chapter describes genetic characteristics that are unique to the hymenoptera, including honeybees, and presents how these characteristics, when combined with the mating behavior of queens, affect the genetic “structure” and populations of honeybee colonies.
Journal ArticleDOI
Field assays for hygienic behavior in honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae)
TL;DR: It is concluded that the freeze-killed brood assay is the most conservative and reliable screening procedure for hygienic behavior and results indicate that bees from nonhyGienic lines can be induced to express hygiensic behavior only if a sufficiently strong stimulus is present.
Journal ArticleDOI
Facultative expression of hygienic behaviour of honey bees in relation to disease resistance
Marla Spivak,Martha Gilliam +1 more
TL;DR: Four experiments were conducted to examine factors that influence the expression of hyGienic and non-hygienic behaviour in honey bees, Apis mellifera, and to examine the correlation between this behaviour and resistance to chalkbrood.
Journal ArticleDOI
Genotypic variation in foraging responses to environmental stimuli by honey bees,Apis mellifera
TL;DR: The data suggest that within-colony genotypic diversity contributes to a resilient foraging response to environmental variation, and individual foragers switched between resource types in response to changes in relative resource quality and colony need.