Hit‐and‐run trophallaxis of small hive beetles

Abstract

Some parasites of social insects are able to exploit the exchange of food between nestmates via trophallaxis, because they are chemically disguised as nestmates. However, a few parasites succeed in trophallactic solicitation although they are attacked by workers. The underlying mechanisms are not well understood. The small hive beetle (=SHB), Aethina tumida, is such a parasite of honey bee, Apis mellifera, colonies and is able to induce trophallaxis. Here, we investigate whether SHB trophallactic solicitation is innate and affected by sex and experience. We quantified characteristics of the trophallactic solicitation in SHBs from laboratory‐reared individuals that were either bee‐naïve or had 5 days experience. The data clearly show that SHB trophallactic solicitation is innate and further suggest that it can be influenced by both experience and sex. Inexperienced SHB males begged more often than any of the other groups had longer breaks than their experienced counterparts and a longer soliciting duration than both experienced SHB males and females, suggesting that they start rather slowly and gain more from experience. Successful experienced females and males were not significantly different from each other in relation to successful trophallactic interactions, but had a significantly shorter soliciting duration compared to all other groups, except successful inexperienced females. Trophallactic solicitation success, feeding duration and begging duration were not significantly affected by either SHB sex or experience, supporting the notion that these behaviors are important for survival in host colonies. Overall, success seems to be governed by quality rather than quantity of interactions, thereby probably limiting both SHB energy investment and chance of injury (<1%). Trophallactic solicitation by SHBs is a singular example for an alternative strategy to exploit insect societies without requiring chemical disguise. Hit‐and‐run trophallaxis is an attractive test system to get an insight into trophallaxis in the social insects.

Quo vadis Aethina tumida? Biology and control of small hive beetles

“…Obtaining a drop of food from an adult honeybee worker that is presenting food between its mandibles (Ellis et al 2002d), which is innate and success increases with experience (Neumann et al 2015) Interfering with other SHB trophallactic contact…”

“…They can feed on dead animals (scavenger; honeybees; conspecifics = cannibalism (Neumann et al 2001b); beef schnitzel (Buchholz et al 2008)) and live animals (predator; Pirk and Neumann 2013) as well as on fruits (phytophagous (Keller 2002;Ellis et al 2002c;Buchholz et al 2008;Arbogast et al 2009aArbogast et al , 2009bArbogast et al , 2010. Moreover, they are able to steal food from their hosts via trophallactic mimicry (kleptoparasite; Ellis et al 2002d;Ellis 2005c;Neumann et al 2015). In conclusion, the authors agree with the line of thoughts initially developed by Arbogast et al (2009b): A. tumida can be considered as an ecological generalist.…”

Molecular detection of small hive beetle Aethina tumida Murray (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae): DNA barcoding and development of a real-time PCR assay

“…SHB can mass reproduce in honey bee colonies and in Italy they are known to have led to the collapse of the entire bee nest in less than five days 33 , 34 . Further reports also suggest that SHB could invade other bee species colonies, such as Austroplebeia australis Friese 35 and Bombus impatiens Cresson 2 , 36 .…”

Cuticular Hydrocarbon Profile of Parasitic Beetles, Aethina tumida (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae)

“…SHB can also infest colonies of other social bees, as well as solitary bee nests [35,37,38], but the role of these alternative hosts is poorly understood. Larval and adult SHBs feed on honey, pollen, host brood, dead or live adult bees, and can even trick honey bees into trophallactic feeding [39]. Adult SHBs are known to conduct long-range dispersal flights searching for a host colony to enter [40].…”