Data from: Maternity of emergency queens in the cape honey bee, Apis mellifera capensis

During reproductive swarming, some workers of the Cape honey bee, Apis mellifera capensis, lay eggs in queen cells, many of which are reared to maturity. However, it is unknown if workers are able to lay in queen cells immediately after queen loss during an episode of emergency queen rearing. In this study we experimentally de-queened colonies and determined the maternity of larvae and pupae that were reared as queens. This allowed us to determine how soon after queen loss workers contribute to the production of new queens. We were further interested to see if workers would preferentially raise new queens from queen-laid brood if this was introduced later. We performed our manipulations in two different settings: an apiary setting where colonies were situated close together and a more natural situation in which the colonies were well separated. This allowed us to determine how the vicinity of other colonies affects the presence of parasites. We found that workers do indeed contribute to queen cell production immediately after the loss of their queen, thus demonstrating that some workers either have activated ovaries even when their colony has a queen or are able to activate their ovaries extremely rapidly. Queen-laid brood introduced days after queen loss was ignored, showing that workers do not prefer to raise new queens from queen brood when given a choice. We also detected non-natal parasitism of queen cells in both settings. We therefore conclude that some A. m. capensis genotypes specialise in parasitising queen cells.

在繁殖群集过程中，开普蜜蜂（Apis mellifera capensis）的部分工蜂会在王台内产卵，其中许多王台最终能够培育成熟。然而，关于工蜂在紧急王台培育事件中王后失配后是否能够立即在王台中产卵，尚无确切认知。在本研究中，我们通过实验手段移除蜂群中的王后，并确定了被培育为王后的幼虫和蛹的亲缘关系。这一实验使我们能够确定王后失配后工蜂对新王生产贡献的时间。我们进一步探究了工蜂是否倾向于从王台中培育新王，如果这一行为在王后失配后数日被引入。我们的操作在两种不同的环境中进行：一是蜂箱密集的养殖场环境，二是蜂群分布较为分散的自然环境。这一设置使我们能够了解其他蜂群的存在如何影响寄生虫的分布。我们发现工蜂确实在其王后失配后立即参与王台的生产，从而证实了某些工蜂即使在蜂群中存在王后的情况下也能激活卵巢，或者能够极其迅速地激活其卵巢。王后失配后数日引入的王台幼虫被忽视，表明工蜂在没有选择的情况下不会倾向于从王台中培育新王。此外，我们还在两种环境中检测到了王台的寄生现象。因此，我们得出结论，某些 A. m. capensis 基因型专门从事王台寄生行为。