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Killing and replacing queen-laid eggs: low cost of worker policing in the honey bee

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posted on 2023-06-08, 20:21 authored by Martin H Kärcher, Francis Ratnieks
Worker honeybees, Apis mellifera, police each other’s reproduction by killing worker-laid eggs. Previous experiments demonstrated that worker policing is effective, killing most (~98%) worker-laid eggs. However, many queen-laid eggs were also killed (~50%) suggesting that effective policing may have high costs. In these previous experiments, eggs were transferred using forceps into test cells, mostly into unrelated discriminator colonies. We measured both the survival of unmanipulated queen-laid eggs and the proportion of removal errors that were rectified by the queen laying a new egg. Across 2 days of the 3-day egg stage, only 9.6% of the queen-laid eggs in drone cells and 4.1% in worker cells were removed in error. When queen-laid eggs were removed from cells, 85% from drone cells and 61% from worker cells were replaced within 3 days. Worker policing in the honeybee has a high benefit to policing workers because workers are more related to the queen’s sons (brothers, r = 0.25) than sister workers’ sons (0.15). This study shows that worker policing also has a low cost in terms of the killing of queen-laid eggs, as only a small proportion of queen-laid eggs are killed, most of which are rapidly replaced.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

American Naturalist

ISSN

0003-0147

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Issue

1

Volume

184

Page range

110-118

Department affiliated with

  • Evolution, Behaviour and Environment Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2015-03-18

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2015-07-01

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2015-03-17

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