短舌熊蜂及红光熊蜂耐寒力的测定

以过冷却点和冰点为评价指标,对短舌熊蜂Bombus terrestris的幼虫,蛹,成年工蜂,成年雄蜂,处女蜂王,越冬后的蜂王及红光熊蜂Bombus ignitus的成年工蜂,成年雄蜂,处女蜂王的耐寒力进行检测。结果显示,短舌熊蜂幼虫期耐寒力最低,其次是蛹,工蜂和雄蜂,处女王较高。耐寒力最高的是越冬后的蜂王,其含水量也最低。将短舌熊蜂与红光熊蜂的成年工蜂,成年雄蜂和处女蜂王三型蜂分别进行对比,结果显示,红光熊蜂成年雄蜂与处女蜂王的耐寒力要比短舌熊蜂高。样本的湿重和含水量与过冷却点和冰点无显著相关性。     

授粉用明亮熊蜂的人工饲养技术

为提高授粉用熊蜂人工繁育效率,降低生产成本,对明亮熊蜂Bombus lucorumL.人工饲养中诱导蜂王产卵和人工控制下的交配2个技术环节进行了研究。结果表明,采用诱导器和伴饲2~3只蜜蜂工蜂的诱导方法,蜂王产卵率和蜂群成群率最高,成群时间最短;使用塑料诱导器和木制诱导器的效果没有显著差异。将8~9日龄的蜂王和11~12日龄的雄蜂放入交配笼时,其交配成功率最高。交配笼内的蜂王数量应控制在30只/m3左右。在晴天,交配笼放置在室外(758 000 lux),其交配成功率最高;在阴天,交配笼应放在交配室内,并开启荧光灯照明(35 000 lux),其交配成功率最高。     

中国红光熊蜂(Bombus ignitus Smith)的饲养与观察

通过室内外饲养 ,观察了我国红光熊蜂蜂群的建立和发展动态。结果表明 ,在温度 2 8± 0 .5℃ ,相对湿度 70± 5 %和无光照的环境条件下 ,平均 84 .85 %越冬红光熊蜂蜂王在饲养后 11.83± 6 .13天开始产卵 ;加入欧洲熊蜂的幼工蜂能够刺激蜂王产卵 ,促使产卵期明显提前 ;健康且已受精的越冬蜂王一般在 2周内产卵 ;在开始饲养后 1个月左右开始出现工蜂 ,2月左右开始产生雄峰 ,雄峰出现后 7d左右产生蜂王。在采集并饲养的蜂王中 ,平均 78.79%的蜂王建立了蜂群 ,每群平均有蜂 180 .2 9± 80 .2 6头 ,其中工蜂 10 5 .90± 4 1.83头 ,雄蜂 6 5 .5 2± 4 5 .33头 ,蜂王 8.86± 12 .38头     

应用微卫星标记分析野生红光熊蜂蜂王的一妻多夫水平

为了摸清自然条件下红光熊蜂Bombus ignitus Smith的一妻多夫水平,本实验采用B118、B11、B96、B124和B126微卫星位点,对来自5群野生红光熊蜂(A、B、C、D和E)的工蜂和雄蜂样本进行了分析。结果推导出:在A、B、C、D和E群体的工蜂基因型中,来自父本的基因型分别有3、2、3、4和3种,即与母本蜂王交配的雄蜂数量分别是3、2、3、4和3只。表明在自然条件下,红光熊蜂同其他蜜蜂科的蜂种一样,也存在一妻多夫现象,且与蜂王交配的雄蜂数量平均为3只。     

短舌熊蜂耐热性研究

【目的】测定高温对短舌熊蜂Bombus terrestris L.个体存活率和体内总蛋白含量的影响,为熊蜂授粉应用提供理论依据。【方法】以高温暴露致死率为耐热性的评价指标,对短舌熊蜂的工蜂幼虫,成年工蜂,成年雄蜂进行检测并对成年工蜂进行亚致死高温驯化。同时考察不同处理温度下熊蜂体内蛋白质含量变化。【结果】结果显示,短舌熊蜂的耐热性能从高到低依次是成年工蜂、成年雄蜂、工蜂幼虫,亚致死高温驯化可显著提高成年工蜂的耐热性能。熊蜂体内蛋白质含量随着温度的升高,呈先增加后减少的趋势,熊蜂体重与体内蛋白质含量无显著相关性。【结论】熊蜂不同虫态对高温的耐受性不同,可通过亚致死高温驯化措施来提高熊蜂的耐热性能和授粉效率。     

云南短头熊蜂的繁育特性研究

短头熊蜂Bombus breviceps是云南省优势蜂种,为更好地挖掘本土熊蜂资源,繁育农业授粉蜂群,本研究从云南3个地区（屏边、个旧和昆明）收集短头熊蜂蜂王后,在相同条件下饲养,统计分析其蜂王产卵前期、工蜂发育期、蜂群生长特性、群势、产卵蜂王率及蜂群可应用率等繁育特性指标。结果表明：3个地区工蜂的发育期相同,屏边地区的蜂王产卵前期最长,蜂群始见工蜂时间及工蜂数量达到6头、30头和60头的时间也最长,均显著高于个旧地区和昆明地区（P<0.05）。3个地区短头熊蜂的群势差异不显著（P>0.05）,但昆明地区的工蜂数量最少,显著低于屏边地区和个旧地区（P<0.05）,而子代蜂王数量显著高于屏边地区和个旧地区（P<0.05）,雄性蜂数量显著高于屏边地区（P<0.05）。昆明地区的产卵蜂王率和蜂群可应用率高于屏边地区和个旧地区。总体而言,云南的短头熊蜂群势强,产卵蜂王率75%以上,蜂群可应用率均在63%以上,易于人工繁育,具有重要的授粉利用价值。     

蜜蜂繁殖冲突与雌性蜜蜂信息素研究进展

在营造社会性生活的蜜蜂群体里,蜂王释放出蜂王信息素来控制工蜂卵巢发育及改造王台特性,并吸引雄蜂为之交配,使蜂群正常繁衍。本文在国内外相关研究的基础上,对蜜蜂各蜂种、亚种以及特殊蜂群无政府主义蜂群、海角蜜蜂等雌性蜜蜂信息素成分以及含量变化进行综合论述,并对蜂王主要信息素对工蜂和雄蜂生理影响以及今后的研究趋势作扼要介绍。     

蜜蜂的交配行为

蜜蜂是一妻多夫制，处女蜂王可与７－１７只雄蜂交配。说细介绍了雄蜂内阳茎的构造，交配时内阳茎翻出体外的过程，蜂王和雄蜂交配的情况，一次交配后留在蜂王蜇针腔的交配标志，以后与蜂王交配的雄蜂如何将堵塞在蜇针腔的交配标志除去的过程。     

中华蜜蜂雄蜂脑部组织结构观察

通过组织化学方法,对中华蜜蜂Apis cerana cerana Fabricius雄蜂的脑部的形态结构进行观察。结果表明,雄蜂的脑由前脑、中脑和后脑三部分构成,前脑视叶两侧具有大而显著的复眼,而其他结构相对较小。蕈形体在脑中所占的比例小于工蜂和蜂王;中心体的比例小于工蜂,与蜂王接近;中脑的嗅叶相对较为发达,这使它们在同蜂王的交配过程中,能够更灵敏地接收来自于蜂王性外激素的刺激。中华蜜蜂雄蜂的嗅叶具有性二态现象,但是与意大利蜜蜂Apis mellifera L.雄蜂发达的巨大纤维球复合体相比,中华蜜蜂并不明显;除此之外,它们在脑部结构上没有显著差异。     

利用VNTR分子标记鉴定蜜蜂群内蜂王交配次数和雄蜂母系来源

如何准确测定蜂王交配次数和雄蜂母系来源,是研究蜜蜂亚家系行为生物学的关键。本研究利用王浆主蛋白（MRJPs）的串联重复序列多态性（VNTR）分子标记分别鉴定了蜂王单雄人工授精、双雄人工授精和自然交尾的中华蜜蜂Apis cerana cerana蜂群中的蜂王交配次数和雄蜂母系来源。结果表明： 在蜂王单雄人工授精和双雄人工授精蜂群中,蜂王的交配次数分别为1和2;在蜂王自然交尾的2个蜂群中,蜂王的交配次数分别为8和5。另外,经鉴定发现：在以上实验蜂群中,所有雄蜂都是由蜂王产的未受精卵发育而来。因此,作为一种分子标记,蜜蜂MRJPs VNTR能简单、有效地鉴定蜂群内蜂王的交配次数和雄蜂母系来源。     

No intracolonial nepotism during colony fissioning in honey bees

Most species of social insects have singly mated queens, but in some species each queen mates with numerous males to create a colony whose workers belong to multiple patrilines. This colony genetic structure creates a potential for intracolonial nepotism. One context with great potential for such nepotism arises in species, like honey bees, whose colonies reproduce by fissioning. During fissioning, workers might nepotistically choose between serving a young (sister) queen or the old (mother) queen, preferring the former if she is a full-sister but the latter if the young queen is only a half-sister. We examined three honeybee colonies that swarmed, and performed paternity analyses on the young (immature) queens and samples of workers who either stayed with the young queens in the nest or left with the mother queen in the swarm. For each colony, we checked whether patrilines represented by immature queens had higher proportions of staying workers than patrilines not represented by immature queens. We found no evidence of this. The absence of intracolonial nepotism during colony fissioning could be because the workers cannot discriminate between full-sister and half-sister queens when they are immature, or because the costs of behaving nepotistically outweigh the benefits.     

The Behavior of Honey Bees (Apis mellifera ligustica) during Queen Duels

Conflict is rare among the members of a highly cooperative society such as a honey bee colony. However, conflict within a colony increases drastically during colony reproduction ('swarming') when newly produced queens fight each other until only one queen remains in the nest. This study describes the behavior of queens and workers during naturally occurring queen combat. The duels of five pairs of queens were observed in three observation colonies. A typical duel is described qualitatively and the events of all five duels are described quantitatively. Several aspects of duels that are of particular interest are examined in detail, including the behavior of queens near capped queen cells, worker aggression toward queens, queen tooting, and the relation of queen and worker behavior to the outcome of the duel. The results of this investigation serve as a foundation for rigorous tests of hypotheses regarding the adaptive significance of queen and worker behavior during queen combat. The results presented suggest that: young queens patrol queen cells to kill rival queens while they are vulnerable; workers aggress queens to prevent them from destroying queen cells; queens toot to inhibit worker aggression; workers immobilize queens to make them easy targets for rival queens; and queens eject hind-gut contents to cause their rival to be immobilized by the workers.     

Caste totipotency and conflict in a large-colony social insect

In most social insects with large, complex colonies workers and queens are morphologically quite distinct. This means that caste determination must occur prior to adulthood. However workers and queens in the swarm-founding epiponine wasps are often morphologically indistinguishable, or nearly so, suggesting that caste determination in these wasps could be quite different. To determine the extent of caste lability in the epiponine, Parachartergus colobopterus, we removed all the queens from one colony and all but one from another colony. Worker aggression diminished after queen removal. A week later the colony with no queens had a new, young cohort of mated queens. These must have been either adults or pupae at the time of queen removal, and so could not have been fed any differently from workers. Relatedness patterns confirmed that these new queens would normally have been workers and not queens. A model of inclusive fitness interests shows that workers ought to suppress new queen production, except at low queen numbers, a prediction supported by our empirical results. The patterns of social conflict over queenship resulting from swarm founding in a many-queen society may help to explain the unusually weak caste differentiation in the epiponines.     

Queen execution in a monogynous ant

Workers in many species of social insects are capable of laying unfertilized eggs, which can develop into haploid males. This causes a conflict about male parentage between queens and workers. In a few species, this may result in matricide, that is, workers kill the colony''s queen. Queen killing has so far been observed mainly in multi‐queen colonies or in annual species, when the queen''s fecundity declines at the end of the reproductive period. Here, we report queen expulsion and matricide in a monogynous, monandrous ant with perennial societies. Workers were seen to aggressively expel both related and unrelated queens from their nest shortly after the end of hibernation. Queen expulsion and matricide led to a significant decrease in the number of workers and brood, but eventually increased the direct fitness of workers through significant male production. Long‐term observations revealed a short lifespan of queens, while workers in orphaned colonies survived and produced male offspring over several years.     

Gyne development in the Argentine ant Iridomyrmex humilis: role of overwintering and queen control

Abstract A possible stimulatory effect of overwintering on gyne development in Iridomyrmex humilis (Mayr) was investigated. Although gyne-potent larvae are present in the nest throughout the year, small queenless colony fragments composed of freshly overwintered ants (collected in late winter or early spring) produced 3–8 times more gynes than comparable fragments made up of non-freshly overwintered ants (collected at other times of the year). Apparently, this stimulatory effect of overwintering acts on both the developmental potential of larvae and the tendency of workers to rear sexually competent larvae as gynes; queenless colony fragments in which either the brood or workers were freshly overwintered produced more gynes than fragments composed of non-freshly overwintered workers or brood but fewer than fragments containing both brood and workers freshly overwintered. This increased sexualization potential of larvae due to overwintering is enough to overcome weak pheromonal inhibition of queens associated with low queen number; a single queen in a large freshly overwintered colony fragment is insufficient to inhibit gyne development, whereas ten queens are totally inhibitory. In non-freshly overwintered colony fragments one queen is completely inhibitory. Variability in egg developmental potential according to queen age does not appear to play a major role in the seasonal production of gynes, because at least some eggs of very young queens (less than 3 weeks old) are capable of gyne development. In the field this stimulatory effect of overwintering is superimposed on a seasonal fluctuation in the combined strength of pheromonal queen control. In southern France, gynes are produced only in spring where they arise primarily from overwintered larvae just after a sharp drop in queen number, and presumably the total level of inhibitory queen pheromone, due to the massive execution of queens by workers.     

Dynamics and Consequences of Hierarchy Formation in the Ant Leptothorax sp. A

In the Nearctic ant Leptothorax sp. A, aggressive interactions among wingless intermorphic queens and primarily winged gynomorphic queens lead to the formation of dominance hierarchies, in which the highest-ranking individual is the only egg-layer in a colony. Fighting occurs during two periods of the annual cycle: in late summer, newly adopted young queens are integrated into the colony's hierarchy; after hibernation, fighting resumes and the high aggressiveness of α-queens may now lead to the emigration of β and other middle-ranking queens. The α-position appears to be very stable over successive fighting periods, though an estimate of nestmate relatedness by allozyme electrophoresis (Polyacrylamide gels and cellulose acetate plates) suggests that queen replacement occasionally occurs. The mean relatedness determined for adult workers in a functionally monogynous population of Leptothorax sp. A was 0.54 and their effective number of mothers therefore 1.5. This is lower than expected and found for monogynous colonies. Dominance rank is apparently not correlated with queen morph, weight, and size, but an influence of insemination, age, or previous reproductive experience is likely.     

Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies

Infections early in life can have enduring effects on an organism's development and immunity. In this study, we show that this equally applies to developing ‘superorganisms’––incipient social insect colonies. When we exposed newly mated Lasius niger ant queens to a low pathogen dose, their colonies grew more slowly than controls before winter, but reached similar sizes afterwards. Independent of exposure, queen hibernation survival improved when the ratio of pupae to workers was small. Queens that reared fewer pupae before worker emergence exhibited lower pathogen levels, indicating that high brood rearing efforts interfere with the ability of the queen's immune system to suppress pathogen proliferation. Early-life queen pathogen exposure also improved the immunocompetence of her worker offspring, as demonstrated by challenging the workers to the same pathogen a year later. Transgenerational transfer of the queen's pathogen experience to her workforce can hence durably reduce the disease susceptibility of the whole superorganism.     

Maternity of emergency queens in the Cape honey bee,Apis mellifera capensis

During reproductive swarming, some workers of the Cape honey bee, Apis mellifera capensis, lay eggs in queen cells, many of which are reared to maturity. However, it is unknown if workers are able to lay in queen cells immediately after queen loss during an episode of emergency queen rearing. In this study we experimentally de‐queened colonies and determined the maternity of larvae and pupae that were reared as queens. This allowed us to determine how soon after queen loss workers contribute to the production of new queens. We were further interested to see if workers would preferentially raise new queens from queen‐laid brood if this was introduced later. We performed our manipulations in two different settings: an apiary setting where colonies were situated close together and a more natural situation in which the colonies were well separated. This allowed us to determine how the vicinity of other colonies affects the presence of parasites. We found that workers do indeed contribute to queen cell production immediately after the loss of their queen, thus demonstrating that some workers either have activated ovaries even when their colony has a queen or are able to activate their ovaries extremely rapidly. Queen‐laid brood introduced days after queen loss was ignored, showing that workers do not prefer to raise new queens from queen brood when given a choice. We also detected non‐natal parasitism of queen cells in both settings. We therefore conclude that some A. m. capensis genotypes specialize in parasitizing queen cells.     

Habitat structure,dispersal strategies and queen number in two boreal Leptothorax ants

In two nearctic ants, Leptothorax canadensis and Leptothorax sp. A, young queens may either found their own nest solitarily after mating or seek adoption into an established colony. Whether a queen disperses or not is associated with genetically determined queen morphology in Leptothorax sp. A. Whereas a majority of winged queens attempt solitary colony founding after mating, most wingless, intermorphic queens return to their maternal nests and new colonies are founded by budding after hibernation. The latter strategy appears to be correlated with patchy, isolated habitats, whereas in extended boreal forests dispersal on the wing is probably more common. Alternative dispersal strategies strongly affect the average number of queens per colony and seasonal fluctuations of colony structure.     

Queen power in relation to age and mating status in the Argentine antIridomyrmex humilis (Mayr)

Summary Queen power inIridomyrmex humilis during six arbitrarily chosen physiological stages of queens (virgin winged queens at the time of emergence, the same 4–5 days old, mated winged queens 5–6 days old, mated queens at the time of dealation, young egg-laying queens, and old egg-laying queens) was tested with regard to workers. Tested workers and queens were nestmates. The results were as follows. 1) Power of the old queens remained rather constant throughout the reproductive season. 2) Young queens were always less attractive than older ones. No changes were observed from the time of emergence to dealation. 3) At the time of egg-laying, these young queens became markedly attractive for workers but never as much as old egg-laying queens. Therefore, insemination and dealation do not trigger the increase in queen power. In contrast, oogenesis ending by egg-laying produces a significant increase in queen power.