Do rebel workers in the honeybee Apis mellifera avoid worker policing?

Wiktoria Rojek,Michał Woyciechowski,Monika Ostap-Chęć,Karolina Kuszewska

doi:10.1007/s13592-019-00689-6

Abstract

A recent study showed that worker larvae fed in a queenless colony develop into another female polyphenic form—rebel workers. The rebel workers are more queen-like than normal workers because they have higher reproductive potential revealed by more ovarioles in their ovaries. However, it was unclear whether eggs laid by rebel workers avoided worker policing. Worker-laid eggs are normally eaten by other workers in a queenright colony. The aim of this study was to compare the survival of three classes of eggs, namely, those laid by normal workers, rebel workers, and the queen. All eggs were tested in queenright colonies. We expected that rebel workers would avoid policing by laying more queen-like eggs. Contrary to our expectations, eggs laid by rebel workers were eaten by other workers, as were eggs laid by normal workers, and only a few worker-laid eggs (both normal and rebel) survived for more than 3 h. Therefore, in a queenright colony, eggs laid by rebel workers do not avoid policing.

Highlights

Honeybee societies are characterized by the reproductive division of labour, in which the queen is typically the only reproductive member of the colony while workers are facultatively sterile and refrain from reproducing in the presence of the queen (Wilson 1971; Bourke 1988)
The results of tests of the survival of eggs from different experimental groups (N, R, Q own, and Q foreign ) in the discriminator colonies are presented in Fig. 4, which shows the proportion of eggs surviving 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 24 h after the experimental frames with male eggs were placed into the four different discriminator colonies
There were no differences in survival between the eggs laid by N and R (log-rank test, p = 0.565 in colony three (Fig. 5c)), and in two discriminator colonies, eggs laid by R were removed significantly faster than those laid by N (log-rank test, p < 0.001 in colonies 1 and 3 (Fig. 5a, c)

Summary

Introduction

Honeybee societies are characterized by the reproductive division of labour, in which the queen is typically the only reproductive member of the colony while workers are facultatively sterile and refrain from reproducing in the presence of the queen (Wilson 1971; Bourke 1988). The existence of such altruistic behaviour of workers was explained by Hamilton (1964a, b) through inclusive fitness theory. One possible source of this information is a ‘queen-produced eggmarking pheromone’ (Ratnieks and Visscher 1989; Ratnieks 1995; Katzav-Gozansky et al 1997)

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Conclusion