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Differential feeding of differentiation inApis

larvae affects caste mellifera

1 Willem J. Boot, Johan N.M. Calis & Mike Allsopp Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen Agricultural University, PO Box 8031, 6700 1 EH Wageningen, The Netherlands, E-mail: johan.calis@wur.nl;Honeybee Research Section, Agricultural Research Council, Private Bag X5017, Stellenbosch, 7599, South Africa

Workers of European honey bees,Apis melliferassp., provide larvae of Cape honey bees,A.m. capensis,with more food thancapensisworkers do. This results in queen-like workers, with reduced pollen combs, enlarged spermathecae and higher numbers of ovarioles being produced fromcapensislarvae reared in European colonies. These queen-like bees are also heavier than normal workers and develop faster (Beekmanet al.2000). Typically, the characteristics shift in concert: fast developing workers were also more queen-like when the spermatheca, pollen combs, weight and ovarioles were regarded. Even a few hours in a European colony is enough for the further development ofcapensislar-vae to be affected. This is relevant for the ‘capensis’problem in South Africa, where capensis bees parasitize colonies ofA.m. scutellataby tak-ing over reproduction. We found that larvae produced by these para-sites were raised into queen-like bees inscutellatacolonies. Raised in capensiscolonies they developed into normalcapensisworker bees.

Keywords:social parasitism,Apis mellifera,capensis,scutellata, caste dif-ferentiation

In honey bee research, the Cape honey bee,Apis mellifera capensis, stands out for its interesting characters. For almost a century researchers have been fascinated by the thelytokous reproduction of the worker bees (Onions 1912). This thelytok-ous reproduction plays an important role in a second unique character: the social parasitism bycapensisbees in colonies of the African honey bee,A. m. scutellata, which has caused huge losses of colonies for more than a decade (Allsopp & Crewe 1993, Erasmuset al.2001). In 1990,capensisbees were introduced into the Northern Province of South Africa (Allsopp, unpublished inquiry).Capensis colonies were housed in apiaries containing colonies ofscutellatabees which resulted in the invasion of thesescutellatacolonies bycapensisworkers. Inscutel-latacolonies,capensisworkers are able to activate their ovaries and produce PROC. NETH. ENTOMOL. SOC. MEET.-VOLUME17 - 200663

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