13360

Abnormal behaviors mediated by nest cell size: a case study with Yemeni honey bees

Article

Last updated: 03 Jan 2025

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Abstract

In the Yemeni honey bee, Apis mellifera jementica, as in other species of honey bees in the genus Apis, the queen is responsible for the egg-laying duties, while workers are facultatively sterile and perform other colony-wide tasks. Under certain conditions, however, workers can lay unfertilized eggs that develop into male drones.  In this study, the effect of cell size on queen egg laying and worker policing behaviorswas investigated. Yemeni honey bee queens were allowed to lay eggs in different cell size combs. Abnormal queen-laid eggs in large cell size combs were found to be removed by workers firstly followed by worker-laid eggs within 24 hours while abnormal queen-laid eggs, in normal cell size combs, survived up to three days. Nest cell size seemed to contribute in the alteration of queen egg laying and policing behaviors.

DOI

10.21608/eajbsa.2013.13360

Keywords

Apis mellifera/ honey bee queen/ cell size/ worker policing/ egg-laying

Authors

First Name

Hossam

Last Name

Abou-Shaara

MiddleName

F.

Affiliation

Baqshan`s Chair for Bee Research, Plant Protection Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, P.O.Box. 2460, Riyadh 11451,

Email

entomology_20802000@yahoo.com

City

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Orcid

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Volume

6

Article Issue

2

Related Issue

2571

Issue Date

2013-06-01

Receive Date

2018-09-11

Publish Date

2013-06-01

Page Start

23

Page End

27

Print ISSN

1687-8809

Online ISSN

2090-0813

Link

https://eajbsa.journals.ekb.eg/article_13360.html

Detail API

https://eajbsa.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=13360

Order

2

Type

Original Article

Type Code

667

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Egyptian Academic Journal of Biological Sciences. A, Entomology

Publication Link

https://eajbsa.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Abnormal behaviors mediated by nest cell size: a case study with Yemeni honey bees

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023