Social regulation of ovary activation in ’anarchistic’ honey-bees (Apis mellifera) |
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Authors: | A B Barron Benjamin P Oldroyd |
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Institution: | (1) School of Biological Sciences, Macleay Building, A12, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia e-mail: abarron@bio.usyd.edu.au Tel.: +61-2-93513642, Fax: +61 2 9351 4771, AU |
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Abstract: | Honey-bee (Apis mellifera) colonies exhibit extreme reproductive division of labour. Workers almost always have inactive ovaries and the queen monopolises
egg laying. Although extremely rare, ’anarchistic’ colonies exist in which workers produce male offspring despite the presence
of the queen. By comparing the rates of ovary activation in anarchistic and wild-type bees fostered to host colonies of different
genotype (i.e. anarchist and non-anarchist) and queen status (i.e. queenless and queenright), we investigated the factors
involved in inhibiting ovary activation. Fostered anarchist workers always had a higher level of ovary development than fostered
wild-type bees in both anarchist and non-anarchist host colonies. Fostered workers of both genotypes had more active ovaries
in anarchistic than in wild-type hosts. Fostered workers of both strains also had more active ovaries in queenless than in
queenright hosts. The results suggest that selection for worker reproduction in the anarchistic line has both reduced the
effects of brood and queen pheromones on worker ovary inhibition and increased the likelihood that workers of the anarchistic
line will develop ovaries compared to wild-type workers.
Received: 14 June 2000 / Revised: 26 September 2000 / Accepted: 7 October 2000 |
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Keywords: | Apis mellifera Worker egg laying Anarchy Worker sterility |
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