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Social parasitism by honeybee workers (Apis mellifera capensis Esch.): evidence for pheromonal resistance to host queen’s signals

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Abstract

Social parasites exploit their host’s communication system to usurp resources and reproduce. In the honeybee, Apis mellifera, worker reproduction is regulated by pheromones produced by the queen and the brood. Workers usually reproduce when the queen is removed and young brood is absent. However, Cape honeybee workers, Apis mellifera capensis, are facultative intraspecific social parasites and can take over reproduction from the host queen. Investigating the manner in which parasitic workers compete with host queens pheromonally can help us to understand how such parasitism can evolve and how reproductive division of labour is regulated. In A. m. capensis, worker reproduction is associated with the production of queen-like pheromones. Using pheromonal contest experiments, we show that Apis mellifera scutellata queens do not prevent the production of queen-like mandibular gland compounds by the parasites. Given the importance of these pheromones in acquiring reproductive status, our data suggest that the single invasive lineage of parasitic workers occurring in the range of A. m. scutellata was selected for its superior ability to produce these signals despite the presence of a queen. Such resistance was indeed less frequent amongst other potentially parasitic lineages. Resistance to reproductive regulation by host queens is probably the key factor that facilitates the evolution of social parasitism by A. m. capensis workers. It constitutes a mechanism that allows workers to evade reproductive division of labour and to follow an alternative reproductive option by acquiring direct fitness in foreign colonies instead of inclusive fitness in their natal nests.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support was granted by the Volkswagen Foundation, the National Research Foundation of South Africa and the University of Pretoria to VD and RMC, by the DFG to JP and by an Emmy Noether fellowship of the DFG to PN. These experiments comply with the current laws of South Africa.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, 0002, Pretoria, South Africa

    Vincent Dietemann & Robin M. Crewe

  2. Institut für Bienenkunde (Polytechnische Gesellschaf), J. W. Goethe-Universität Frankfurt a. Main, Karl-von-Frisch Weg 2, 61440, Oberursel, Germany

    Jochen Pflugfelder

  3. Institut für Zoologie, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Hoher Weg 4, 06099, Halle (Saale), Germany

    Stephan Härtel & Peter Neumann

  4. Department of Zoology and Entomology, Rhodes University, 6140, Grahamstown, South Africa

    Peter Neumann

  5. Eastern Bee Research Institute of Yunnan Agricultural University, Heilongtan, Kunming, Yunnan Province, People’s Republic of China

    Peter Neumann

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  1. Vincent Dietemann
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Correspondence to Vincent Dietemann.

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Communicated by J. Traniello

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Dietemann, V., Pflugfelder, J., Härtel, S. et al. Social parasitism by honeybee workers (Apis mellifera capensis Esch.): evidence for pheromonal resistance to host queen’s signals. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 60, 785–793 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-006-0222-0

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