A direct assay to assess self-grooming behavior in honey bees (Apis mellifera L.)
Autor: | Nuria Morfin, Laura G. Espinosa-Montaño, Ernesto Guzman-Novoa |
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Přispěvatelé: | University of Guelph, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) |
Jazyk: | angličtina |
Rok vydání: | 2020 |
Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
honey bees Wheat flour 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Self grooming Toxicology Honey Bees varroa destructor Mite Destructor biology fungi food and beverages biology.organism_classification [SDV.BA.ZI]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Invertebrate Zoology 010602 entomology Direct assay bioassay Insect Science Varroa destructor behavior and behavior mechanisms grooming behavior Varroa human activities psychological phenomena and processes |
Zdroj: | Apidologie Apidologie, 2020, 51 (5), pp.892-897. ⟨10.1007/s13592-020-00769-y⟩ |
ISSN: | 0044-8435 |
DOI: | 10.1007/s13592-020-00769-y⟩ |
Popis: | International audience; Grooming behavior confers resistance to honey bees against the mite Varroa destructor and thus is a mechanism of interest for studies of social immunity and breeding purposes. However, mites are not always available to conduct grooming assays and can introduce variability to the evaluations. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the use of wheat flour as an irritant in a laboratory assay to assess self-grooming behavior in honey bees. Presumed Varroa-susceptible and Varroa-resistant genotypes were used to determine the time it took the bees to initiate grooming instances and the proportion of bees that responded when exposed to either flour or a Varroa mite. Flour elicited significantly faster grooming responses and with a higher proportion of individuals in both genotypes in comparison with V. destructor. Also, significant differences between both genotypes were observed. It is concluded that flour can be used as an irritant instead of V. destructor to evaluate self-grooming behavior in bees in the laboratory. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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