Honey bee colonies headed by hyperpolyandrous queens have improved brood rearing efficiency and lower infestation rates of parasitic Varroa mites

A honey bee queen mates on wing with an average of 12 males and stores their sperm to produce progeny of mixed paternity. The degree of a queen’s polyandry is positively associated with measures of her colony’s fitness, and observed distributions of mating number are evolutionary optima balancing risks of mating flights against benefits to the colony. Effective mating numbers as high as 40 have been documented, begging the question of the upper bounds of this behavior that can be expected to confer colony benefit. In this study we used instrumental insemination to create three classes of queens with exaggerated range of polyandry– 15, 30, or 60 drones. Colonies headed by queens inseminated with 30 or 60 drones produced more brood per bee and had a lower proportion of samples positive for Varroa destructor mites than colonies whose queens were inseminated with 15 drones, suggesting benefits of polyandry at rates higher than those normally obtaining in nature. Our results are consistent w...

蜜蜂蜂王在婚飞过程中与雄蜂交尾，平均交配对象为12只雄蜂，并储存其精子以繁育具有多重父系的后代。蜂王的一妻多夫（polyandry）程度与其蜂群的适合度指标呈正相关，已观测到的交配数分布属于进化最优解，平衡了婚飞风险与蜂群的收益。目前已记录到的有效交配数最高可达40只，这一现象引发了核心疑问：该行为的上限可在何种程度上为蜂群带来益处。本研究采用人工授精（instrumental insemination）技术，构建了三类一妻多夫程度跨度极大的蜂王群体——分别与15、30或60只雄蜂完成交尾的蜂王。相较于蜂王仅与15只雄蜂交尾的蜂群，由与30或60只雄蜂交尾的蜂王统领的蜂群，每只蜂所抚育的幼虫数量更高，且狄斯瓦螨（Varroa destructor）检测呈阳性的样本比例更低，这表明高于自然常态的一妻多夫频率可为蜂群带来益处。本研究结果与……