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Distance from the queen affects workers’ selfish behaviour in the honeybee (A. mellifera) colony

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Abstract

It has been postulated that spatial organization of the colony, in addition to biological and social factors, influences colony life in honeybees. In this study, we examine the influence of workers’ distance from the queen on their reproductive, pheromonal and behavioural characteristics. Our results demonstrate that with increasing distance from the queen, workers increasingly develop behavioural and reproductive traits characteristic of queenlessness, which are presumably the result of significant impairment in queen pheromone transmission. Having contemplated the alternative possibilities of inadequate transmission of queen signal and voluntary escape from queen control, we concluded, based on the behavioural and physiological data, that the former is far more probable than the latter. The dose-dependent manner of the queen pheromone action and its differential influence on various worker characteristics are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grant no. 2007233 from the United States–Israel Binational Science Foundation to A. Hefetz and C. M. Grozinger. We thank Dr. Tovit Simon for her technical help, Mr. Josef Kamer and Dr. Victoria Soroker from Tzrifin Apiary for their assistance in establishing experimental hives and Ms. Naomi Paz for her editorial assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, 69978, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Margarita Orlova & Abraham Hefetz

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  1. Margarita Orlova
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  2. Abraham Hefetz
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Correspondence to Margarita Orlova.

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Communicated by O. Rueppell

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Fig. 1

a.)Workers with different types of marking: triple tags, single tags and colour marks. Lower picture illustrates the difference in size between single and triple tags. b.)Observation hive with compartmentalization visible. c.)A fragment of the Perspex grid passable for single-tagged but not to triple-tagged bees. (GIF 2839 kb)

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Orlova, M., Hefetz, A. Distance from the queen affects workers’ selfish behaviour in the honeybee (A. mellifera) colony. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 68, 1693–1700 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-014-1777-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-014-1777-9

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