Abstract
The stinging and guarding components of the defensive behavior of European, Africanized, hybrid, and backcross honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) were compared and analyzed at both colony and individual levels. Hybrid and Africanized backcross colonies stung as many times as Africanized ones. European backcross colonies stung more than European bees but not as many times as Africanized or Africanized backcross colonies. The degree of dominance for the number of times that worker bees stung a leather patch was estimated to be 84.3%, 200.8%, and 145.8% for hybrid, backcross European, and backcross Africanized colonies, respectively. Additionally, both guards at the colony entrance and fast-stinging workers of one European backcross colony had a significantly higher frequency of an Africanized DNA marker allele, located near “sting1,” a QTL previously implicated in stinging behavior at the colony level. However, guards and fast-stinging bees from a backcross to the Africanized parental colony did not differ from control bees in their frequency for the Africanized and European markers, as would be expected if large genetic dominance effects for sting1 exist. These results support the hypothesis that genetic dominance influences the defensive behavior of honeybees and confirm the effect of sting1 on the defensiveness of individual worker bees.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Adams, J., Rothman, E. D., Kerr, W. E., and Paulino, Z. L. (1977). Estimation of the number of sex alleles and queen matings from diploid male frequencies in a population of Apis mellifera. Genetics 86:583–596.
Breed, M. D., and Rogers, K. B. (1991). The behavioral genetics of colony defense in honeybees: Genetic variability for guarding behavior. Behav. Genet. 21:295–303.
Breed, M. D., Rogers, K. B., Hunley, J. A., and Moore, A. J. (1988). A correlation between guard behavior and defensive response in the honeybee, Apis mellifera. Anim. Behav. 37:515–516.
Breed, M. D., Robinson, G. E., and Page, R. E. (1990). Division of labor during honeybee colony defense. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 27:395–401.
Cajero, A. S. (1995). Achievements and actions of the national program for the control of the African bee. Proc. IX Seminario Americano Apicultura, Colima, Mexico (1995).
Calderone, N. W., and Page, R. E. (1988). Genotypic variability in age polyethism and task specialisation in the honeybee, Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 22:17–25.
Calderone, N. W., and Page, R. E. (1991). The evolutionary genetics of division of labor in colonies of the honeybee (Apis mellifera). Am. Nat. 138:69–92.
Calderone, N. W., and Page, R. E. (1992). Effects of interactions among genetically diverse nestmates on task specialisation by foraging honeybees (Apis mellifera). Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 30:219–226.
Collins, A. M. (1986). Bidirectional selection for colony defense in Africanized honeybees. Am. Bee J. 126:827–828.
Collins, A. M., Rinderer, T. E., Harbo, J. R., and Bolten, A. B. (1982). Colony defense by Africanized and European honeybees. Science 218:72–74.
Collins, A. M., Rinderer, T. E., Harbo, J. R., and Brown, M. A. (1984). Heritabilities and correlations for several characters in the honeybee. J. Hered. 75:135–140.
Collins, A. M., Rinderer, T. E., and Tucker, K. W. (1988). Colony defense of two honeybee types and their hybrids. I. Naturally mated queens. J. Apic. Res. 27:137–140.
Crozier R. H., Consul P. C. (1976). Conditions for genetic polymorphisms in social Hymenoptera under selection at the colony level. Theor Popul Biol 10:1–9.
DeGrandi-Hoffman, G., Collins, A. M., Martin, J. H., Schmidt, J. O., and Spangler, H. G. (1998). Nest defense behavior in colonies from crosses between Africanized and European honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) (Hymenoptera: Apidae). J. Insect Behav. 11:37–45.
Gary, N. E., and Lorenzen, K. (1987). Vacuum device for collecting and dispensing honeybees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and other insects into small cages. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 80:664–666.
Giray, T., Guzmán-Novoa, E., Aron, C. W., Zelinsky, B., Fahrbach, S. E., and Robinson, G. E. (2000). Genetic variation in worker temporal polyethism and colony defensiveness in the honeybee, Apis mellifera. Behav. Ecol. 11:44–55.
Guzmán-Novoa, E., and Gary, N. E. (1993). Genotypic variability of components of foraging behavior in honeybees (Hymenoptera: Apidae). J. Econ. Entomol. 86:715–721.
Guzmán-Novoa, E., and Page, R. E. (1993). Backcrossing Africanized honeybee queens to European drones reduces colony defensive behavior. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 86:352–355.
Guzmán-Novoa, E., and Page, R. E. (1994a). Genetic dominance and worker interactions affect honeybee colony defense. Behav. Ecol. 5:91–97.
Guzmán-Novoa, E., and Page, R. E. (1994b). The impact of africanized bees on Mexican beekeeping. Am. Bee J. 134:101–106.
Guzmán-Novoa, E., and Page, R. E. (1999). Selective breeding of honeybees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in Africanized areas. J. Econ. Entomol. 92:521–525.
Guzmán-Novoa, E., and Page, R. E., and Gary, N. E. (1994). Be-havioral and life-history components of division of labor in honeybees (Apis mellifera L.). Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 34:409–417.
Guzmán-Novoa, E., Page, R. E., Spangler, H. G., and Erickson, E. H. (1999). A comparison of two assays to test the defensive behaviour of honeybees (Apis mellifera). J. Apic. Res. 38:205–209.
Hall, H. G. (1990). Parental analysis of introgressive hybridization between African and European honeybees using nuclear DNA RFLPs. Genetics 125:611–621.
Hall, H. G. (1992a). DNA studies reveal processes involved in the spread of new world African honeybees. Florida Entomol. 75:51–59.
Hall, H. G. (1992b). Further characterization of nuclear DNA RFLP markers that distinguish African and European honeybees. Arch. Ins. Biochem. Biophys. 19:163–175.
Hall, H. G., and Muralidharan, K. (1989). Evidence from mitochondrial DNA that African honeybees spread as continuous maternal Lineages. Nature 339:211–213.
Hall, H. G., and Smith, D. R. (1991). Distinguishing African and European honeybee matrilines using amplified mitochondrial DNA. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 88:4548–4552.
Hellmich, R. L., Kulincevic, J. M., and Rothenbuhler, W. C. (1985). Selection for high and low pollen-hoarding honeybees. J. Hered. 76:155–158.
Hillesheim, E., Koeniger, N., and Moritz, R. F. A. (1989). Colony performance in honeybees (Apis mellifera capensis Esch.) depends on the proportion of subordinate and dominant workers. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 24:291–296.
Hunt, G. J. (1997). Insect DNA extraction protocol. In Micheli M. R. and R. Bova, eds. Fingerprinting Methods Based on Arbitrarily Primed PCR. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, pp. 21–24.
Hunt, G. J., Page, R. E., Fondrk, M. K., and Dullum, C. J. (1995). Major quantitative trait loci affecting honeybee foraging behavior. Genetics 141:1537–1545.
Hunt, G. J., Guzmán-Novoa, E., Fondrk, M. K., and Page, R. E. (1998). Quantitative trait loci for honeybee stinging behavior and body size. Genetics 148:1203–1213.
Hunt, G. J., Collins, A. M., Rivera, R., Page, R. E., and Guzmán-Novoa, E. (1999). Quantitative trait loci influencing honeybee alarm pheromone levels. J. Hered. 90:585–589.
Kerr, W. E. (1967). The history of the introduction of African bees to Brazil. S. Afr. Bee J. 39:3–5.
Lobo, J. A., Lama, M. A. D., and Mestriner, M. A. (1989). Population differentiation and racial admixture in the Africanized honeybee (Apis mellifera L.). Evolution 43:794–802.
Moffett, J. O., Maki, D. L., Andre, T., and Fierro, M. M. (1987). The Africanized bee in Chiapas, México. Am. Bee J. 127:517–520.
Moore, A. J., Breed, M. D., and Moor, M. J. (1987). The guard honeybee: Ontogeny and behavioral variability of workers performing a specialized task. Anim. Behav. 35:1159–1167.
Moritz, R. F. A., and Hillesheim, E. (1985). Inheritance of dominance in honeybees (Apis mellifera capensis Esch.). Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 17:87–89.
Moritz, R. F. A., and Meusel, M. S. (1992). Mitochondrial gene frequencies in Africanized honeybees (Apis mellifera L.): Theoretical model and empirical evidence. J. Evol. Biol. 5:71–72.
Muralidharan, K., and Hall, H. G. (1990). Prevalence of African DNA RFLP alleles in neotropical African honeybees. Arch. Ins. Biochem. Biophys. 15:229–236.
Nielsen, D. I., Ebert, P. R., Page, R. E., Hunt, G. J., and Guzmán-Novoa, E. (2000). Improved polymerase chain reaction–based mitochondrial genotype assay for identification of the Africanized honeybee (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 93:1–6.
Owen, R. E. (1986). Colony-level selection in the social insects: Sin-gle locus additive and non-additive models. Theor. Popul. Biol. 29:198–234.
Page, R. E. (1986). Sperm utilization in social insects. Annu. Rev. Entomol. 31:297–320.
Page, R. E., and Laidlaw, H. H. (1988). Full sisters and super sisters: A terminological paradigm. Anim. Behav. 36:944–945.
Page, R. E., and Robinson, G. E. (1991). The genetics of the division of labour in honeybee colonies. Adv. Insect Physiol. 23:117–169.
Page, R. E., Jr., Waddington, K. D., Hunt, G. J., and Fondrk, M. K. (1995). Genetic determinants of honeybee foraging behavior. Anim. Behav. 50:1617–1625.
Page, R. E., Jr., Fondrk, M. K., Hunt G. J., Guzmán-Novoa, E., Humphries, M. A., Nguyen, K., and Greene, A. (2000). Genetic dissection of honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) foraging behavior. J. Hered. 91:474–479.
Quezada-Euán, J. J. G., and Medina, L. M. (1998). Hybridization between European and Africanized honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) in tropical Yucatan, Mexico: I. Morphometric changes in feral and managed colonies. Apidologie 29:555–568.
Ribbands, C. R. (1954). The defence of the honeybee community. Proc. Roy. Soc. London (B) 142:514–524.
Rinderer, T. E., Steltzer, J. A., Oldroyd, B. P., Buco, S. M., and Rubink, W. L. (1991). Hybridization between European and Africanized honeybees in the neotropical Yucatan Peninsula. Science 253:309–312.
Robinson, G. E., and Page, R. E., and Page, R. E. (1988). Genetic determination of guarding and undertaking in honeybee colonies. Nature 333:356–358.
Robinson, G. E., and Page, R. E. (1989). Genetic determination of nectar foraging, pollen foraging, and nest-site scouting in honeybee colonies. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 24:317–323.
Robinson, G. E., Page, R. E., and Fondrk, M. K. (1990). Intracolonial behavioral variation in worker oviposition, oophagy, and larval care in queenless honeybee colonies. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 26:315–323.
Rothenbuhler, W. C., and Page, R. E. (1989). Genetic variability for temporal polyethism in colonies consisting in similarly-aged worker honeybees. Apidologie 29:433–437.
Seeley, T. D. (1989). The honeybee colony as a superorganism. Am. Sci. 77:546–553.
Sheppard, W. S., Soares, A. E. E., and DeJong, D. (1991). Hybrid status of honeybee populations near the historic origin of Africanization in Brazil. Apidologie 22:643–652.
Smith, D. R., Taylor, O. R., and Brown, W. M. (1989). Neotropical Africanized honeybees have African mitochondrial DNA. Nature 339:213–215.
Stort, A. C. (1975a). Genetic study of the aggressiveness of two subspecies of Apis mellifera in Brazil. II. Time at which the first sting reached the leather ball. J. Apic. Res. 14:171–175.
Stort, A. C. (1975b). Genetic study of the aggressiveness of two subspecies of Apis mellifera in Brazil. IV. Number of stings in the gloves of the observer. Behav. Genet. 5:269–274.
Stort, A. C. (1975c). Genetic study of the aggressiveness of two subspecies of Apis mellifera in Brazil. V. Number of stings in the leather ball. J. Kans. Entomol. Soc. 48:381–387.
Sugden, E. A., and Williams, K. R. (1991). October 15: The day the bee arrived. Gle. Bee Cult. 119:18–21.
Sylvester, H. A., and Rinderer, T. E. (1987). Fast africanized bee identification system (FABIS) manual. Am. Bee J. 127:511–516.
Villa, J. D. (1988). Defensive behaviour of Africanized and European honeybees at two elevations in Colombia. J. Apic. Res. 27:141–145.
Winston, M. L. (1987). The Biology of the Honeybee. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Guzmán-Novoa, E., Hunt, G.J., Uribe, J.L. et al. Confirmation of QTL Effects and Evidence of Genetic Dominance of Honeybee Defensive Behavior: Results of Colony and Individual Behavioral Assays. Behav Genet 32, 95–102 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015245605670
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015245605670