scholarly journals Promiscuous Honey Bee Queens Increase Colony Productivity by Suppressing Worker Selfishness

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (21) ◽  
pp. 2027-2031 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather R. Mattila ◽  
H. Kern Reeve ◽  
Michael L. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bee ◽  
Honey Bee Queens ◽  
Colony Productivity

THE USE OF RADIOACTIVE PLATINUM-IRIDIUM (IR-192) TAGS FOR LOCATING HONEY BEE QUEENS IN COLONIES (HYMENOPTERA: APIDAE)

1977 ◽  
Vol 109 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-320
Author(s):  
D. L. Nelson ◽  
W. F. Baldwin
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bee ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
Honey Bee Queens

It is often necessary in queen quality, package bee development, and wintering studies to locate the queen at different times to determine her presence, weight, location, etc. In the spring, colonies are small and locating the queen is not difficult. However, in late summer, when colonies reach up to 60,000 worker bees in five or six supers, the task becomes very difficult and time consuming. While the use of radioactive tags as a means of following the movement of insects has been well established (Amason et al. 1950: Green et al. 1957; Gomez et al. 1962; Baldwin and Cowper 1969), their use for studying the movement of bees has been limited. Radioactive paint was used by G. A. Tomes (1940) and Raudszuz (1958) for marking queens but apparently proved unsuitable. This study was conducted to determine the possibility of using platinum-iridium (IR-192) tags as a means for rapid, repeated recovery of queens during the producing season

scholarly journals THE EVOLUTION OF MULTIPLE MATING BEHAVIOR BY HONEY BEE QUEENS (APIS MELLIFERA L.)

Genetics ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 263-273
Author(s):  
Robert E Page
Keyword(s):  
Mating Behavior ◽  
Honey Bee ◽  
Multiple Mating ◽  
Genetic Load ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Individual Fitness ◽  
Essential Components ◽  
Honey Bee Queens ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Sex Determination System

ABSTRACT A model is presented showing that natural selection operating at the individual level can adequately explain the evolution of multiple mating behavior by honey bee queens. Group selection need not be invoked. The fitness of a given female genotype is a function of the number of sex alleles in the population, the number of matings by an individual female and the specific parameters that determine the relationship of brood viability to individual fitness. Even though the exact relationship is not known, it is almost certainly not linear. A nonlinear relationship between worker brood viability and fitness and a significant genetic load associated with the sex-determination system in honey bees are the essential components of this model.

scholarly journals The physical, insemination, and reproductive quality of honey bee queens (Apis mellifera L.)

Apidologie ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah A. Delaney ◽  
Jennifer J. Keller ◽  
Joel R. Caren ◽  
David R. Tarpy
Keyword(s):  
Apis Mellifera ◽  
Honey Bee ◽  
Honey Bee Queens

scholarly journals Genomic Signatures of Honey Bee Association in an Acetic Acid Symbiont

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 1882-1894
Author(s):  
Eric A Smith ◽  
Irene L G Newton
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bee ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Phylogenetic Analyses ◽  
Food Stores ◽  
Genomic Changes ◽  
Eusocial Insects ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
Bee Health ◽  
Honey Bee Health ◽  
Honey Bee Queens

Abstract Recent declines in the health of the honey bee have startled researchers and lay people alike as honey bees are agriculture’s most important pollinator. Honey bees are important pollinators of many major crops and add billions of dollars annually to the US economy through their services. One factor that may influence colony health is the microbial community. Indeed, the honey bee worker digestive tract harbors a characteristic community of bee-specific microbes, and the composition of this community is known to impact honey bee health. However, the honey bee is a superorganism, a colony of eusocial insects with overlapping generations where nestmates cooperate, building a hive, gathering and storing food, and raising brood. In contrast to what is known regarding the honey bee worker gut microbiome, less is known of the microbes associated with developing brood, with food stores, and with the rest of the built hive environment. More recently, the microbe Bombella apis was identified as associated with nectar, with developing larvae, and with honey bee queens. This bacterium is related to flower-associated microbes such as Saccharibacter floricola and other species in the genus Saccharibacter, and initial phylogenetic analyses placed it as sister to these environmental bacteria. Here, we used comparative genomics of multiple honey bee-associated strains and the nectar-associated Saccharibacter to identify genomic changes that may be associated with the ecological transition to honey bee association. We identified several genomic differences in the honey bee-associated strains, including a complete CRISPR/Cas system. Many of the changes we note here are predicted to confer upon Bombella the ability to survive in royal jelly and defend themselves against mobile elements, including phages. Our results are a first step toward identifying potential function of this microbe in the honey bee superorganism.

Honey Bee Queens Do Not Count Mates to Assess their Mating Success

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Simone-Finstrom ◽  
David R. Tarpy
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bee ◽  
Mating Success ◽  
Honey Bee Queens
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