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Small hive beetles survive in honeybee prisons by behavioural mimicry

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Abstract.

We report the results of a simple experiment to determine whether honeybees feed their small hive beetle nest parasites. Honeybees incarcerate the beetles in cells constructed of plant resins and continually guard them. The longevity of incarcerated beetles greatly exceeds their metabolic reserves. We show that survival of small hive beetles derives from behavioural mimicry by which the beetles induce the bees to feed them trophallactically. Electronic supplementary material to this paper can be obtained by using the Springer LINK server located at htpp://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-002-0326-y.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology and Entomology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown 6140, South Africa, , , , ,

    J. Ellis,  C. Pirk &  H. Hepburn

  2. Institute of Zoology, Department of Neurobiology, University of Graz, Graz 1800, Austria, , , , ,

    G. Kastberger

  3. USDA, Kika de la Garze Subtropical Research Center, Weslaco, TX 78596, USA, , , , ,

    P. Elzen

Authors
  1. J. Ellis
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  2. C. Pirk
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  3. H. Hepburn
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  4. G. Kastberger
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  5. P. Elzen
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Ellis, .J., Pirk, .C., Hepburn, .H. et al. Small hive beetles survive in honeybee prisons by behavioural mimicry. Naturwissenschaften 89, 326–328 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-002-0326-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-002-0326-y

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