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Effects of simulated tropical heat waves during development on the morphological and reproductive traits of Africanized honey bee

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Abstract

Global warming may have a significant negative impact on insects in the tropics due to an increase in the frequency and intensity of heat waves. Heat waves may have a particularly harsh impact on the relatively sessile juvenile stages of holometabolous insects, such as larvae and pupae. The honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) is an important tropical holometabolous insect whose queens and drones may also be negatively impacted by heat waves during their development, leading to reduced reproductive capacity. However, we have little information on the thermal tolerance of honey bee subspecies in tropical regions. To address this knowledge gap, we evaluated the effect of simulated heat waves during development on drones and queens of Africanized A. mellifera in terms of the size, shape, and symmetry of their forewings, as well as their reproductive traits such as sperm concentration and viability in drones, and ovariole number and spermatheca volume in queens. Drones raised at high temperatures were more asymmetric in forewing size but not in shape, and had a smaller body size and reduced sperm concentration and viability compared to those raised at normal hive temperatures. In contrast, no effect of an elevated temperature regime during development was seen in queens in terms of the size and symmetry of the forewing, the number of ovarioles, and the volume of the spermatheca. Our results support the notion that males of insects are more susceptible to high temperatures compared to females. We discuss the implications of our findings for the reproductive fitness of honey bee colonies in tropical regions.

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Acknowledgements

We thank CONACYT-México for a Ph.D. scholarship to RMM. We also acknowledge Luis Enrique Jasso Canto and Ph.D. Mario Duran Castillo for advices in Spanish/English translation.

Funding

This work was supported by the project “Cambio climático y polinizadores: Efecto del incremento térmico sobre la estabilidad en el desarrollo e indicadores de aptitud biológica en abejas tropicales de México (HYMENOPTERA:APIDAE)” (CONACYT CB-237532) to JJGQE.

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  1. R. G. Medina

    Present address: Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agrícolas y Pecuarias (INIFAP) Campo Experimental Edzná, San Francisco de Campeche, Campeche, Mexico

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  1. Campus de Ciencias Biológicas y Agropecuarias, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Km 15. 5 Carr. Mérida-Xmatkuil, Yucatán, Mexico

    R. G. Medina, M. Arjona-Torres, J. R. Aké-Villanueva, L. A. Medina-Medina & J. J. G. Quezada-Euán

  2. Institute for Biology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany

    R. J. Paxton

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Medina, R.G., Paxton, R.J., Arjona-Torres, M. et al. Effects of simulated tropical heat waves during development on the morphological and reproductive traits of Africanized honey bee. Insect. Soc. 70, 327–338 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-023-00927-2

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