Mating flights select for symmetry in honeybee drones (Apis mellifera) |
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Authors: | Rodolfo Jaffé Robin F A Moritz |
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Institution: | (1) Molecular Ecology, Institute of Biology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Hoher Weg 4, 06120 Halle (Saale), Germany;(2) Present address: Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Animal Biology (M092), The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia;(3) ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, Molecular and Chemical Sciences Building, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia |
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Abstract: | Males of the honeybee (Apis mellifera) fly to specific drone congregation areas (DCAs), which virgin queens visit in order to mate. From the thousands of drones
that are reared in a single colony, only very few succeed in copulating with a queen, and therefore, a strong selection is
expected to act on adult drones during their mating flights. In consequence, the gathering of drones at DCAs may serve as
an indirect mate selection mechanism, assuring that queens only mate with those individuals having a better flight ability
and a higher responsiveness to the queen’s visual and chemical cues. Here, we tested this idea relying on wing fluctuating
asymmetry (FA) as a measure of phenotypic quality. By recapturing marked drones at a natural DCA and comparing their size
and FA with a control sample of drones collected at their maternal hives, we were able to detect any selection on wing size
and wing FA occurring during the mating flights. Although we found no solid evidence for selection on wing size, wing FA was
found to be significantly lower in the drones collected at the DCA than in those collected at the hives. Our results demonstrate
the action of selection during drone mating flights for the first time, showing that developmental stability can influence
the mating ability of honeybee drones. We therefore conclude that selection during honeybee drone mating flights may confer
some fitness advantages to the queens. |
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