明亮熊蜂和意大利蜜蜂为温室草莓的授粉行为比较观察

蜜蜂和熊蜂都是理想的授粉昆虫,但熊蜂比蜜蜂更适合为温室果菜授粉,主要由于熊蜂和蜜蜂授粉时的活动方式不同。作者对明亮熊蜂和意大利蜜蜂为日光温室草莓授粉时的行为和活动方式进行了比较研究。结果表明,明亮熊蜂和意大利蜜蜂的授粉行为相似,但活动方式不同。明亮熊蜂开始访花的时间（8:00～8:05）比意大利蜜蜂（9:25～9:40）早,停止访花的时间（15:55～16:05）却比意大利蜜蜂（15:20～15:30）晚;开始访花的温度（12～13℃）也比意大利蜜蜂（>15℃）低,意大利蜜蜂在早晨和阴天不访花。明亮熊蜂个体的日活动时间271.43±4.48 s,明显比意大利蜜蜂个体的日活动时间180.00±2.64 s长,差异显著;而采集时间为105.71±1.16 s,显著长于意大利蜜蜂的76.43±3.83 s。明亮熊蜂每分钟平均访花数为8.44±0.44,极显著高于意大利蜜蜂每分钟的平均访花数2.38±0.15;明亮熊蜂访花间隔为3.81±0.42 s,极显著短于意大利蜜蜂的6.0±0.48 s。明亮熊蜂访花具有选择性,每天访早期花平均为55%,意大利蜜蜂则无选择性,每天访早期花平均为34%,二者差异显著;在9:00～12:00明亮熊蜂访早期花平均为75%,意大利蜜蜂访早期花则仅为31%。熊蜂在花间和花簇间活动频繁,平均移动距离为5.2 m;而意大利蜜蜂很少在花簇间移动,平均移动距离只有1.1 m。据此得出明亮熊蜂为日光温室草莓授粉的活动特性优越于意大利蜜蜂,从而产生更高的授粉效益。     

Impact of the introduced honey bee (Apis mellifera) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) on native bees: A review

Abstract Interspecific competition for a limited resource can result in the reduction of survival, growth and/or reproduction in one of the species involved. The introduced honey bee (Apis mellifera Linnaeus) is an example of a species that can compete with native bees for floral resources. Often, research into honey bee/native bee competition has focused on floral resource overlap, visitation rates or resource harvesting, and any negative interaction has been interpreted as a negative impact. Although this research can be valuable in indicating the potential for competition between honey bees and native bees, to determine if the long‐term survival of a native bee species is threatened, fecundity, survival or population density needs to be assessed. The present review evaluates research that has investigated all these measurements of honey bee/native bee competition and finds that many studies have problems with sample size, confounding factors or data interpretation. Guidelines for future research include increasing replication and using long‐term studies to investigate the impact of both commercial and feral honey bees.     

Evolutionary history of the honey bee Apis mellifera inferred from mitochondrial DNA analysis

Variability of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of the honey bee Apis mellifera L. has been investigated by restriction and sequence analyses on a sample of 68 colonies from ten different subspecies. The 19 mtDNA types detected are clustered in three major phylogenetic lineages. These clades correspond well to three groups of populations with distinct geographical distributions: branch A for African subspecies (intermissa, monticola, scutellata, andansonii and capensis), branch C for North Mediterranean subspecies (caucasica, carnica and ligustica) and branch M for the West European populations (mellifera subspecies). These results partially confirm previous hypotheses based on morphometrical and allozymic studies, the main difference concerning North African populations, now assigned to branch A instead of branch M. The pattern of spatial structuring suggests the Middle East as the centre of dispersion of the species, in accordance with the geographic areas of the other species of the same genus. Based on a conservative 2% divergence rate per Myr, the separation of the three branches has been dated at about 1 Myr BP.     

Spatial foraging patterns of the African honey bee,Apis mellifera scutellata

Recruitment patterns were investigated for the African honey bee in the Okavango River Delta, Botswana. The waggle dances of two observation colonies maintained in the field were monitored and used to construct maps of daily recruitment activity. These maps revealed that the African colonies frequently adjusted the allocation of recruits among food patches, recruited for 16–17 different food sites/day over areas of 55–80 km ² ,and concentrated the majority of recruitment within 1 km of the hives (median foraging distances for the two colonies were 295 and 563 m). In both colonies pollen foragers were more abundant than nectar foragers, and pollen sources indicated by waggle dancers were significantly closer to the hives than nectar sources. Compared to the recruitment patterns of temperate climate colonies, the African colonies had smaller recruitment areas, smaller mean recruitment distances, and a greater emphasis on pollen foraging. These differences may be related to the contrasting survival strategies followed by tropical-versus temperate-climate honey bees.     

Increased survival of the honey bee Apis mellifera infected with the microsporidian Nosema ceranae by effective gene silencing

This study examined the control of nosemosis caused by Nosema ceranae, one of the hard-to-control diseases of honey bees, using RNA interference (RNAi) technology. Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) for RNAi application targeted the mitosome-related genes of N. ceranae. Among the various mitosome-related genes, NCER_100882, NCER_101456, NCER_100157, and NCER_100686 exhibited relatively low homologies with the orthologs of Apis mellifera. Four gene-specific dsRNAs were prepared against the target genes and applied to the infected A. mellifera to analyze Nosema proliferation and honey bee survival. Two dsRNAs specifics to NCER_101456 and NCER_100157 showed high inhibitory effects on spore production by exhibiting only 62% and 67%, respectively, compared with the control. In addition, these dsRNA treatments significantly rescued the honey bees from the fatal nosemosis. It was confirmed that the inhibition of Nosema spore proliferation and the increase in the survival rate of honey bees were resulted from a decrease in the expression level of each target gene by dsRNA treatment. However, dsRNA mixture treatment was no more effective than single treatments in the rescue from the nosemosis. It is expected that the four newly identified mitosome-related target genes in this study can be effectively used for nosemosis control using RNAi technology.     

Antennal hygroreceptors of the honey bee,Apis mellifera L.

Summary Antennal hygroreceptors of the honey bee, Apis mellifera L., have been investigated electrophysiologically and the sensillum containing these receptors with SEM. Moist and dry hygroreceptors have been identified along with a thermal receptor in a specialized coeloconic sensillum. This sensillum comprises a cuticular, shallow depression (diameter; 4 ) having a central opening (1.4–1.5 m) and a mushroom-shaped protrusion (1.4–1.5 m) from the opening. The head of the protrusion is irregular in shape and is not perforated. This sensillum has been thus far referred to as a sensillum campaniformium (Dietz and Humphreys 1971), henceforth, it is referred to as a coelocapitular sensillum.The responses of both moist and dry hygroreceptors are of a phasic-tonic manner. Both receptors are antagonistic with respect to their responses to humidity; one responds with an increase in impulse frequency to rising humidity, the other to falling humidity. The humidity-response relationship is independent of stimulus flux.     

Movement of honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) queen mandibular gland pheromone in populous and unpopulous colonies

The mode of intranest transfer of the honey bee queen mandibular gland pheromone complex (QMP) was investigated in unpopulous and populous, slightly congested colonies, using synthetic QMP containing tritiated 9-keto-2(E)-decenoic acid, one of the QMP components. Radiolabel was rapidly transported from the center to the peripheral regions of the nest, and in a manner consistent with worker to worker transport. Population size and congestion had no effect on the relative rates of movement from the center to the periphery of the nest or on the mean amounts of radiolabel on individual bees. However, a significantly smaller proportion of the workers in the populous colonies received detectable amounts of radiolabel than in the uncongested colonies, and workers carrying especially large amounts of radiolabel were less numerous in the crowded colonies. It is suggested that, at the stage of colony development that the colonies were in, population size has more of an effect on intranest pheromone transmission than does crowding. Interference with pheromone transfer may occur only at higher levels of congestion than were created, and nearer to the reproductive phase of colony development. An alternative hypothesis is that colony crowding does not significantly affect QMP transport and that the onset of reproductive queen rearing may be associated more with changes in worker thresholds of response to QMP.     

Modes of cell death in the hypopharyngeal gland of the honey bee (Apis mellifera l)

Different modes of cell death have been revealed in the regressing hypopharyngeal glands of worker honey bees. The hypopharyngeal gland, which is well developed in young nursing bees to produce protein for larval food, was seen to regress naturally in foraging adult worker bees. A range of techniques including histology, cytochemistry, in situ TUNEL, Annexin V and Comet assays indicated that cells within the gland demonstrate progressive symptoms of apoptosis, necrosis and a vacuolar form of programmed cell death. The latter mode of cell death did not display chromatin margination, but was accompanied by an enhanced level of autophagic and hydrolytic activity in which a cytosolic source of acid phosphatase became manifest in the extra-cisternal spaces. Normal and annexin-positive cells were found to occur in the younger nursing bees, whilst necrosis and an aberrant vacuolar type of apoptosis predominated in the older foraging bees. The relevance of these results to the classification of programmed cell death is discussed.     

Seasonal cycles of growth,development and movement of the African honey bee,Apis mellifera scutettata,in Africa

Summary The relationship between the annual colony cycle and seasonal patterns of forage availability was investigated for the African honey bee,Apis mellifera scutellata, in the Okavango River Delta, Botswana. The annual cycle occurred in three distinct periods. The swarming season occurred from October-November, following two to three months of intense brood production, and coincided with the end of peak forage abundance. The migration season occurred from November-May and coincided with reduced and variable floral resources. During the migration season, brood production and food storage were generally low but quite variable from month to month, and swarms passing over the study area at this time traveled in an easterly direction. The migration season was followed by the establishment period (June-September), in which large numbers of new colonies traveling from the west moved into the study area. The establishment period coincided with, and slightly preceded, the period of peak forage abundance, and colonies devoted resources collected at this time almost entirely to brood rearing, which culminated in swarm production. The data suggest that honey bee colonies in the Okavango are mobile and gear their reproduction and movement to seasonally shifting resource pattern.     

A new species of Syntretus Foerster (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Euphorinae), a parasitoid of the stingless bee Trigona carbonaria Smith (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponinae)

A new species of euphorine braconid, Syntretus trigonaphagus sp. nov., is described and illustrated. This is the first Australian Syntretus species to be described and the first record of braconids parasitising Trigona Jurine stingless bees. Egg-laying by adults and emergence of larvae from the host Trigona carbonaria is detailed. A 12S ribosomal rRNA gene fragment was sequenced to confirm the association of larvae and adults of the wasp parasitoid.     

A revision of subspecies structure of western honey bee Apis mellifera

The taxonomy of honey bee A. mellifera contains a lot of issues due to the specificity of population structure, features of biology and resolutions of honey bee subspecies discrimination methods. There are a lot of transition zones between ranges of subspecies which led to the gradual changes of characteristics among neighbor subspecies. The modern taxonomic pattern of honey bee Apis mellifera is given in this paper. Thirty-three distinct honey bee subspecies are distributed across all Africa (11 subspecies), Western Asia and the Middle East (9 subspecies), and Europe (13 subspecies). All honey bee subspecies are subdivided into 5 evolutionary lineages: lineage A (10 subspecies) and its sublineage Z (3 subspecies), lineage M (3 subspecies), lineage C (10 subspecies), lineage O (3 subspecies), lineage Y (1 subspecies), lineage C or O (3 subspecies).     

The adaptive value of inactive foragers and the scout-recruit system in honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies

In honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies, scouts search for productiveforage sites and then recruit other workers to those locations using a waggle dance. A simple and tractable mathematical modelof the honey bee scout-recruit system was developed to studythe relationship between nectar availability, the efficiencyof the honey bee's recruitment system, and the optimal proportionof scouts that maximizes net gain (benefit - cost), or, energeticefficiency (benefit/cost - 1). The models consider both the energetic costs and benefits of active scouts and recruits aswell as the cost of an inactive forager reserve. They predictconditions when individual foraging is favored over the honeybee's recruitment system, when the colony should abandon foragingaltogether, and the optimal proportion of scouts (when thescout-recruit system is favored). The models' predictions qualitatively match empirical data. Surprisingly, previous empirical datafrom the honey bee suggest that recruits' costs are greaterthan scouts'—recruits spend significantly longer searchingfor a forage patch than do scouts—thereby causing researchersto rethink how the scout-recruit system might be adaptive. Using average returns, the models demonstrate how the scout-recruitsystem is adaptive despite these apparent higher recruit costsrelative to the scouts'. A sensitivity analysis demonstratesthat the results are robust to a broad range of relative costsof active workers, inactive workers, and the energetic benefitsof the forage. Consequently, the model is demonstrated to berelevant to many insect societies that employ a scout-recruitsystem.     

The impact of pollen consumption on honey bee (Apis mellifera) digestive physiology and carbohydrate metabolism

Carbohydrate‐active enzymes play an important role in the honey bee (Apis mellifera) due to its dietary specialization on plant‐based nutrition. Secretory glycoside hydrolases (GHs) produced in worker head glands aid in the processing of floral nectar into honey and are expressed in accordance with age‐based division of labor. Pollen utilization by the honey bee has been investigated in considerable detail, but little is known about the metabolic fate of indigestible carbohydrates and glycosides in pollen biomass. Here, we demonstrate that pollen consumption stimulates the hydrolysis of sugars that are toxic to the bee (xylose, arabinose, mannose). GHs produced in the head accumulate in the midgut and persist in the hindgut that harbors a core microbial community composed of approximately 10⁸ bacterial cells. Pollen consumption significantly impacted total and specific bacterial abundance in the digestive tract. Bacterial isolates representing major fermentative gut phylotypes exhibited primarily membrane‐bound GH activities that may function in tandem with soluble host enzymes retained in the hindgut. Additionally, we found that plant‐originating β‐galactosidase activity in pollen may be sufficient, in some cases, for probable physiological activity in the gut. These findings emphasize the potential relative contributions of host, bacteria, and pollen enzyme activities to carbohydrate breakdown, which may be tied to gut microbiome dynamics and associated host nutrition.     

The role of queen mandibular pheromone and colony congestion in honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) reproductive swarming (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

The roles of honey bee queen mandibular pheromone and colony congestion in the inhibition of swarming were investigated. Two colony siz.es were used: small, congested colonies and large, uncongested colonies. Both groups of colonies were treated with various dosages of the five-component, synthetic queen mandibular pheromone in the spring, and the extent and timing of swarming were followed. Most treatment groups received pheromone or a solvent blank (control) on a stationary slide; one group of the congested colonies received a pheromone treatment via an aerosol spray. The pheromone was not effective at delaying swarming in the congested colonies at any dosage applied on slides, but the aerosol spray-treated colonies swarmed significantly later in the season than the control colonies. The uncongested, pheromone-treated colonies exhibited a dose-dependent delay in swarming, with the highest dosage colonies swarming almost four weeks later than the control colonies. These results indicate an interaction between congestion and pheromone in the control of honey bee reproduction. While congestion may in itself be a factor stimulating swarming, these results are consistent with the interpretation that colony congestion reduces the transmission of queen pheromone within the nest, thereby removing the queen 's pheromone-based inhibition of queen rearing and subsequent swarming by workers.     

Seasonal patterns of foraging activity in colonies of the African honey bee,Apis mellifera scutellata,in Africa

Summary Seasonal foraging patterns were investigated using six observation colonies maintained in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Pollen collection, flight from the hive, and recruitment for pollen and nectar sources occurred throughout the 11 months of the study. However, the distribution of foraging activity throughout the day changed seasonally. Colonies emphasized recruitment for pollen sites throughout most of the year. Brood production occurred in all months except May, and there was a significant, positive correlation between the proportion of recruitment activity devoted to pollen sources and the amount of brood comb in the colonies. The seasonal foraging patterns ofscutellata in the Okavango were similar to those of Africanized honey bees in the neotropics. The extended foraging season and emphasis on pollen collection may be associated with the high swarming rates and migrational movements of tropical honey bees.     

Nest characteristics and recruitment behavior of absconding colonies of the African honey bee,Apis mellifera scutellata,in Africa

Absconding behavior was investigated in a naturally occurring population of honey bees in the Okavango River Delta, Botswana. Fifty percent of all colonies excavated in the field between October and December had abandoned the nest or were preparing for absconding, suggesting that an absconding season began in the Delta in October or November. However, the factors influencing absconding during this period were unclear, and there were no distinct differences in nest characteristics of the absconding and nonabsconding colonies. Waggle dance activity in observation colonies preparing for absconding was not used to preselect a specific nest site prior to departure. However, in two of the three colonies examined recruitment activity indicated the general direction of colony travel. The distances indicated by these dancers ranged between 6 and 16 km. Since these distances were three to four times greater than those communicated by dancers in nonabsconding colonies, workers from absconding colonies may sample potential forage or nest sites well outside their regular foraging range.     

Different thresholds for detection and discrimination of odors in the honey bee (Apis mellifera)

Naturally occurring odors used by animals for mate recognition, food identification and other purposes must be detected at concentrations that vary across several orders of magnitude. Olfactory systems must therefore have the capacity to represent odors over a large range of concentrations regardless of dramatic changes in the salience, or perceived intensity, of a stimulus. The stability of the representation of an odor relative to other odors across concentration has not been extensively evaluated. We tested the ability of honey bees to discriminate pure odorants across a range of concentrations at and above their detection threshold. Our study showed that pure odorant compounds became progressively easier for honey bees to discriminate with increasing concentration. Discrimination is, therefore, a function of odorant concentration. We hypothesize that the recruitment of sensory cell populations across a range of concentrations may be important for odor coding, perhaps by changing its perceptual qualities or by increasing its salience against background stimuli, and that this mechanism is a general property of olfactory systems.     

Chill sensitivity of honey bee, Apis mellifera, embryos

Improved methods for preservation of honey bee, Apis mellifera L., germplasm would be very welcome to beekeeping industry queen breeders. The introduction of two parasites and the emergence of an antibiotic resistant disease have increased demands for resistant stock. Techniques for artificial insemination of queens are available, and semen has been cryopreserved with limited success. However, cryopreservation of embryos for rearing queens would mesh well with current practices and also provide drones (haploid males). Eggs at five ages between twenty-four hours and sixty-two hours were exposed to 0, -6.6, and/or -15 degrees C for various times, and successful hatch measured. Honey bee embryos show chill sensitivity as do other insect embryos, and the rate of chill injury increases dramatically with decrease in holding temperature. The 48 h embryos in both groups showed the greatest tolerance to chilling, although 44 h embryos were only slightly less so.