The insemination of queen honeybees with diluted semen

Skowronek, W.; Kruk, C.; Loc, K.

doi:10.1051/apido:19950605

Cited by 16 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The inbred colonies were obtained by artificial insemination (Skowronek et al, 1995;Kühnert, 1991) of virgin queens with sperm of several brothers which resulted in about 25% of the progeny to be diploid males (Tab. II).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexing of newly hatched live larvae of the honey bee, Apis mellifera, allows the recognition of diploid drones

Santomauro

Engels

2002

Apidologie

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

-In the honey bee, it is difficult to recognise the sex in first instar larvae. As workers and haploid drones develop in differently sized brood cells, they can be discriminated without sex inspection. However, because diploid drone larvae originate from fertilised eggs like workers, they hatch in brood cells of the same type and cannot be sampled according to cell size. In search of a reliable method of sexing live first instar larvae, we found that the contour and size proportions of the epiproct can be used for discrimination. The sex diagnosis based on these characters is carried out rapidly under a stereo microscope and allows the collection of pure samples of newly hatched diploid drone larvae from brood combs of inbred colonies.Apis mellifera / sexing of live larvae / epiproct / diploid drones

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexing of newly hatched live larvae of the honey bee, Apis mellifera, allows the recognition of diploid drones

Santomauro

Engels

2002

Apidologie

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Since we used the sperm mix technique (Skowronek et al, 1995) and equal sperm volumes per queen, differences in sperm numbers between drones should be equalized, and therefore the situation is likely to reflect natural matings.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sister-queens were reared from those colonies in a single breeding colony following routine techniques (Wilde, 1994) to control for any potential impact of colony environment on queen quality. The queens were randomly assigned to groups and were either inseminated with semen of: a single drone (N = 8); of 10 drones (N = 5); or 20 drones (N = 3), using the mixed sperm technique (Skowronek et al, 1995). Before and after insemination, the queens were kept and treated as described by Woyke et al (2008).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genotypic diversity in queenless honey bee colonies reduces fitness

Bratkowski¹,

Pirk²,

Neumann³

et al. 2012

Journal of Apicultural Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

SummaryHoney bee queens mate with many males. The resulting genotypic diversity appears to enhance fitness of queenright colonies (those colonies with a reproductive queen present) which is difficult to measure, because measures of long-term fitness include successful matings of produced male sexuals (drones) and number of surviving swarms. The fitness of queenless colonies is, however, limited to worker-produced adult drones until natural colony death. Here we test the impact of genotypic diversity on fitness of queenless honey bee colonies, which were headed by queens inseminated with one, 10 and 20 drones or naturally mated. The data show that genetically diverse queenless colonies (20 subfamilies per colony) produced fewer adult drones, had a delayed onset of worker-derived drone flight activity, and a lower efficacy in drone production / per day colony life span compared to all other groups. Our data suggest that genotypic diversity may reduce fitness of queenless honey bee colonies, probably due to reproductive conflicts among subfamilies after queenloss.La diversidad genotípica en colonias de la abeja de la miel sin reinas reduce la aptitud biológica Resumen Las reinas de la abeja de la miel se aparean con muchos individuos masculinos. La diversidad genotípica resultante parece mejorar la aptitud biológica de las colonias con una reina presente (es decir, aquellas colonias con una reina reproductiva presente), lo cual es difícil de medir, ya que las medidas de la aptitud biológica a largo plazo incluyen los apareamientos exitosos de los machos producidos (zánganos) y el número de enjambres supervivientes. Sin embargo, la aptitud biológica de las colonias sin reina está limitada a los zánganos adultos producidos por obreras hasta la muerte natural de la colonia. Aquí ponemos a prueba el impacto de la diversidad genotípica en la aptitud biológica de colonias de abejas sin reina, que fueron gobernadas por reinas inseminadas con uno, 10 y 20 zánganos o apareadas de forma natural. Los datos muestran que las colonias sin reina genéticamente diversas (con 20 subfamilias por colonia) produjeron menos zánganos adultos, tuvieron un retraso en la aparición de la actividad de vuelo de los zánganos producidos por obreras, y una menor eficacia en la producción de zánganos por día de vida de la colonia en comparación con los demás grupos. Nuestros datos sugieren que la diversidad genotípica puede reducir la aptitud de las colonias de abejas sin reina, probablemente debido a los conflictos reproductivos entre subfamilias después de la pérdida de la reina.

show abstract

“…Semen from 30 drones was collected by syringe, then, released into a glass vial, diluted with Hyes solution (composition described by Ruttner (1976)), and then mixed according to Skowronek et al (1995). Queens from both groups were inseminated twice with a dose of 4 µL of semen each.…”

Section: Experimental Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hygienic Behaviour of Honeybee Colonies with Different Levels of Polyandry and Genotypic Composition

Gerula

Węgrzynowicz

Panasiuk

et al. 2015

Journal of Apicultural Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A b s t r a c t Honey bee queens were inseminated with diluted, homogenised semen collected from a few dozen drones. This procedure was carried out to increase the diversity of the queens' offspring, which is in comparison to the offspring of queens inseminated with semen from only a few drones coming from one colony. Queens and drones were mated within carniolan bee (Apis mellifera carnica) subspecies, but 3 selected lines were used. Queens were reared from one line and drones from the same line, and two additional lines differing in hygienic behaviour wherein in one of them that trait was strongly evident. The aim of this study was to examine whether the level of enhanced genetic variability in colonies and simultaneously the participation of hygienic bees, would increase the performance of hygienic behaviour. Overall hygienic behaviour of colonies with a lower and greater genetic variability did not differ significantly and amounted to 52.1 and 47.0%, respectively. Colonies within the lower variability group, in which drones from line selected in hygienic behaviour performance were used for inseminating queens, had a significantly greater percent of cleaned pupae than other colonies (63.2%). Hygienic behaviour in other colonies was more dependent on the gene quotas of hygienic bees in the colonies rather than on the level of polyandry.

show abstract

The insemination of queen honeybees with diluted semen

Cited by 16 publications

References 10 publications

Sexing of newly hatched live larvae of the honey bee, Apis mellifera, allows the recognition of diploid drones

Sexing of newly hatched live larvae of the honey bee, Apis mellifera, allows the recognition of diploid drones

Genotypic diversity in queenless honey bee colonies reduces fitness

Hygienic Behaviour of Honeybee Colonies with Different Levels of Polyandry and Genotypic Composition

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About