Diet selection and foraging distances of African and European-African hybrid honey bee colonies in Costa Rica

Abstract

Summary Diet selection and foraging distances were compared among 3 pairs of matched colonies of African an European-African hybrid honey bees in Northwestern Costa Rica. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis was used to classify each colony as neotropical African (possessing African mtDNA) or hybrid (possessing European mtDNA, and therefore containing workers arising from a European queen mated to African drones). African and hybrid colonies did not differ significantly in population size, the areas of comb devoted to brood rearing and food storage, flight activity, pollen foraging activity, or the distances traveled to pollen and nectar sources. These nonsignificant differences suggest that the foraging behavior of the two colony types may have been more influenced by environmental factors than by genetically determined dietary or movement preferences. Conversely, such genetically determined preferences may have been expressed, but African-like preferences may have been dominant within both colony types. However, while no significant differences were observed, colonies with African mtDNA maintained slightly greater levels of brood rearing, had 1.5 times the level of pollen foraging activity, and traveled on the average 600 m less per round trip of foraging. The potential influence of these slight but consistent differences on the long-term, relative success of African versus hybrid colonies is discussed.