Abstract
Older larvae of honeybee drones are fed with a diet containing pollen. It is not known how pollen deprivation during the larval development of drones might affect their reproductive quality. This study investigated ejaculation ability and semen quality in drones reared in colonies with limited (LP) and unlimited (ULP) access to pollen. Access to pollen was limited by pollen traps. Drone brood rearing was not instantly abandoned in colonies with limited access to pollen. Colonies from the LP group reared drones with smaller mass, which ejaculated in fewer numbers and released smaller amounts of semen. The LP and ULP groups did not differ in semen quality as judged by the concentration, number, and viability of spermatozoa in ejaculate. It was found that access to pollen during larval development directly affects the reproductive quality of drones.
Highlights
Under moderate climate, honeybee drones (Apis mellifera) are present in colonies from May to August (Free and Williams 1975; Boes 2010)
A drone is responsible for producing semen and transmitting it to the queen during the mating flight
The amount of pollen collected from colonies with limited access to pollen (LP) ranged from 215 to 1,290 g
Summary
Honeybee drones (Apis mellifera) are present in colonies from May to August (Free and Williams 1975; Boes 2010). Their number in a colony does not exceed 10 % of the adult population and depends on the stage of the season, the number of individuals in the colony, the presence and age of the queen, the number of drone brood, and the amount of food available (Allen 1963; Free and Williams 1975; Page and Peng 2001; Currie 1987; Wharton et al 2007, 2008; Boes 2010; El-Kazafy and AL-Kahtani 2013). Drones mate with the queen at the age of 15–23 days, the average being 21 days (Couvillon et al 2010)
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