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Correlation of queen size and spermathecal contents and effects of miticide exposure during development

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Abstract

Normal mating of honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) queens and drones results in extreme polyandry. Larger queens are reported to produce more brood, but do they also store more semen? Measurements of queen weight, spermatheca weight and volume, and numbers of sperm in the spermatheca were made on normally reared queens and queens exposed to miticide from early larval stage to emergence. In the normally reared group, larger queens had more sperm in spermathecae of greater volume and weight. The presence of miticide during queen development skewed the relationship of queen weight to spermatheca size and the number of sperm stored such that they were not correlated. This sublethal effect of miticide in the colony has an unknown impact on queen performance.

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Acknowledgments

We sincerely acknowledge the assistance of Virginia Williams, Andy Ulsamer, Nathan Rice, and several student employees of the BRL, and Reg Wilbanks, Wilbanks Apiaries, Claxton, GA, and his crew. Robin Underwood deserves many thanks for statistical analysis. We would also like to thank some anonymous reviewers for inspiring us to do further work. Supported by USDA, ARS, CRIS 1275-21220-212 Cryopreservation of Honey Bee Germplasm.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bee Research Laboratory, ARS, USDA, 10300 Baltimore Ave., Bldg. 476 BARC-East, Beltsville, MD, 20705, USA

    Anita M. Collins & Jeffery S. Pettis

  2. PO Box 806, Kutztown, PA, 19530, USA

    Anita M. Collins

Authors
  1. Anita M. Collins
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  2. Jeffery S. Pettis
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Correspondence to Anita M. Collins.

Additional information

Manuscript editor: David Tarpy

Corrélation entre la taille de la reine et le contenu de la spermathèque et les effets de l’exposition à un miticide durant le développement

Spermathèque / concentration du sperme / polyandrie extrême/ évolution / poids de la reine

Korrelation zwischen der Körpergröße der Königinnen und der Füllung der Spermatheka sowie der Effekt von Akariziden während der Entwicklung der Königin.

Spermatheka / Spermienkonzentration / extreme Polyandrie / Evolution / Königinnengewicht

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Collins, A.M., Pettis, J.S. Correlation of queen size and spermathecal contents and effects of miticide exposure during development. Apidologie 44, 351–356 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-012-0186-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-012-0186-1

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