Social Parasitism by Workers in Queenless and Queenright Apis Cerana Colonies.
From: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.
Molecular ecology
- Publish Date: Mar 2007
- ISSN: 0962-1083
- Volume: 16
- Issue: 5
- Pages: 1107-14
- Medium: Print
- Language: English
- Citation (JAMA): Nanork P, Chapman N C, Wongsiri S, et al. Social Parasitism by Workers in Queenless and Queenright Apis Cerana Colonies.. Mol. Ecol. Mar 2007;16:1107-14
Abstract
We examined worker reproduction in queenless and queenright Apis cerana colonies to determine if they are parasitized by workers from other nests. The results demonstrate that 2-6% of workers in queenright colonies are from another nest (non-natal), but these workers are not statistically more likely to have activated ovaries than natal workers, and are therefore unlikely to be active parasites. However, in queenless colonies we found a significant difference between the proportion of non-natal (72.7%) and natal (36.3%) workers with activated ovaries. Non-natal workers also had significantly higher reproductive success than natal workers: 1.8% of workers were non-natal, but these laid 5.2% of the eggs and produced 5.5% of the pupae. Unlike A. florea, the proportion of non-natal workers does not increase in queenless nests.
Mesh Headings (Keywords): Animals, Bees, Behavior, Animal, Female, Hierarchy, Social, Ovary, Reproduction, Social Behavior
Check for Full Text / PubMed Unique Identifier (PMID): 17305864
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