Parasitic Cape honeybee workers, Apis mellifera capensis, evade policing

Martin, Stephen J.; Beekman, Madeleine; Wossler, Theresa C.; Ratnieks, Francis L. W.

doi:10.1038/415163a

Cited by 112 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…There is also evidence that workers actively try to evade egg policing. In anarchistic and parasitic Cape honeybees, workers can lay eggs that evade policing, possibly by chemically mimicking queen-laid eggs [27,28]. Workers of the Asian honeybees Apis florea and Apis cerana evade policing by a form of parasitism, laying eggs in unrelated queenless colonies in which worker policing has been switched off so that the colony can rear a last batch of males [29,30].…”

Section: Evasion Of Coercionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[18]. [26]; the large peripheral cell contains a normal-sized queen (Q); (b) parasitic Cape bee workers, Apis mellifera capensis, lay eggs that are not policed in colonies of their host, Apis mellifera scutellata, resulting in the accumulation of multiple eggs per cell [28]; (c) workers of the dwarf honeybee Apis florea join and lay eggs in unrelated queenless colonies in which worker policing is switched off [29]; (d) to evade queen policing, workers of the bumblebee Bombus terrestris sometimes kill their mother queen [18,31]. Reproduced, with permission, from T. Wenseleers (a), F.L.W.…”

Section: Box 2 Controversy: the Selective Basis Of Worker Policingmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Altruism in insect societies and beyond: voluntary or enforced?

Ratnieks

Wenseleers

2008

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

174

196

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Section: Evasion Of Coercionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Box 2 Controversy: the Selective Basis Of Worker Policingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Altruism in insect societies and beyond: voluntary or enforced?

Ratnieks

Wenseleers

2008

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

174

196

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“…This system can be compromised, however (Martin et al, 2002). The order of the honeybee society is subsequently torn apart by uncontrolled replication of a malignant worker phenotype, a situation that is comparable to a lethal social cancer (Oldroyd, 2002).…”

Section: B Social Cancermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thereby, if an unmated worker lays an egg, it can develop into a fully viable diploid replicate of its mother or, if sufficiently nourished, the offspring can grow to become a queen. The ovary of A. m. capensis workers develop rapidly inside the host society, probably implying that these bees do not respond to the A. m. scutellata queen and larval pheromones that normally suppress worker oogenesis (Martin et al, 2002). Additionally, A. m. capensis worker bees provide their eggs with a pheromone coating that mimics that of eggs laid by the A. m. scutellata queen (Section V).…”

Section: B Social Cancermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The resulting A. m. capensis adults often have enlarged ovaries and other morphological and pheromonal characteristics similar to that of queens (Section III). This class of offspring does not engage in collective division of labor, but instead the workers feed off the host society's food stores and start laying their own eggs after as little as 6 days (Martin et al, 2002). The A. m. scutellata queen is killed by the worker bees within 5−6 weeks, and the society subsequently breaks down when the remaining population of A. m. scutellata workers becomes so small that the social connectivity of the colony collapses (Fig.…”

Section: B Social Cancermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Order, Disorder, Death: Lessons from a Superorganism

Amdam¹,

Seehuus²

2006

Advances in Cancer Research

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Animal models contribute to the understanding of molecular mechanism of cancer, revealing complex roles of altered cellular-signaling networks and deficient surveillance systems. Analogous pathologies are documented in an unconventional model organism that receives attention in research on systems theory, evolution, and aging. The honeybee (Apis mellifera) colony is an advanced integrative unit, a "superorganism" in which order is controlled via complex signaling cascades and surveillance schemes. A facultatively sterile caste, the workers, regulates patterns of growth, differentiation, homeostasis, and death. Workers differentiate into temporal phenotypes in response to dynamic social cues; chemosensory signals that can translate into dramatic physiological responses, including programmed cell death. Temporal worker forms function together, and effectively identify and terminate abnormal colony members ranging from embryos to adults. As long as this regulatory system is operational at a colony level, the unit survives and propagates. However, if the worker phenotypes that collectively govern order become too few or change into malignant forms that bypass control mechanisms to replicate aberrantly; order is replaced by disorder that ultimately leads to the destruction of the society. In this chapter we describe fundamental properties of honeybee social organization, and explore conditions that lead to states of disorder. Our hope is that this chapter will be an inspirational source for ongoing and future work in the field of cancer research.

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Parasitic Cape honey bee workers ( Apis mellifera capensis ) are not given differential treatment by African guards ( A. m. scutellata )

et al. 2002

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Workers of the Cape honey bee Apis mellifera capensis started to parasitize the African honey bee A. m. scutellata after being introduced into Gauteng (former Northern Transvaal Province) from its native territory, the Cape Province. The A. m. capensis strain that is parasitic has at least two traits that make it a serious pest of the native African bee colonies: workers rapidly develop their ovaries when in a non-capensis colony even when a queen is present, and worker-laid eggs are not killed by worker policing. Here we investigate whether A. m. capensis workers also have special mechanisms to circumvent the guard bees of A. m. scutellata thereby aiding their horizontal transmission between infected and non-infected colonies. We studied the acceptance of non-nestmate A. m. capensis and A. m. scutellata bees by guards of African bee colonies by introducing them to the hive entrance of A. m. scutellata colonies. We used 2 A. m. scutellata discriminator colonies that were both split into a queenright and a queenless portion. Our results suggest that invading workers of A. m. capensis have no special mechanisms to circumvent the African guards. Neither race of the introduced bee nor presence or absence of the queen in the guarding colony affected the proportion of introduced workers accepted. When pooled, 15 % of introduced A. m. capensis and 18% of A. m. scutellata non-nestmate workers were accepted by African guards.

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Parasitic Cape honeybee workers, Apis mellifera capensis, evade policing

Cited by 112 publications

References 15 publications

Altruism in insect societies and beyond: voluntary or enforced?

Altruism in insect societies and beyond: voluntary or enforced?

Order, Disorder, Death: Lessons from a Superorganism

Parasitic Cape honey bee workers ( Apis mellifera capensis ) are not given differential treatment by African guards ( A. m. scutellata )

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