Super and half-sister discrimination by honey bee workers (Apis mellifera L.) in a trophallactic bioassay

Autor: Robin F. A. Moritz, T. Heisler
Rok vydání: 1992
Předmět:
Zdroj: Insectes Sociaux. 39:365-372
ISSN: 1420-9098
0020-1812
DOI: 10.1007/bf01240621
Popis: Kin recognition and nepotism between honeybee workers (Apis mellifera L.) was analysed in a trophallactic bio-assay. Donor workers were fed dyed sugar syrup and introduced into a recipient group consisting of 12 to 15 workers of the same colony. After allowing for 1 hour of trophallaxis, the distribution of the dyed food was analysed with spectrophotometry. The subfamily composition in the recipient group was varied such that the donor bees had to discriminate between workers of 2 to 7 different patrilines. Donor bees preferentially fed super sisters if few patrilines were present in the recipient group. However, preferential feeding was not observed if the recipient group consisted of workers of more than three subfamilies. Since the natural degree of polyandry causes intracolonial genetic variance to exceed the genetic variability in the experiments, nepotistic behaviour among workers may not reveal intranidal subfamily recognition in honeybees.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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