Summary
The timing of queen rearing and swarming are described after queens were removed from colonies of Africanized bees. New queens were reared from newly hatched to three day old worker larvae, many of which were moved in the egg or newly eclosed larval stages by workers into newly constructed queen cells. Mortality of worker eggs and larvae following dequeening was high, averaging 50%. When new queens emerged, swarms issued from two-thirds of the colonies. This process of queen replacement and queen-loss swarming differs from that of reproductive swarming in the lack of preparation before queen loss, longer queenless interval, lack of correlation between number of swarms and sealed brood area or number of queen cells, and lack of Congestion in colonies when swarms issued.
Resume
Nous décrivons le «timing» de l'élevage des reines et de l'essaimage après avoir enlevé la reine dans des colonies d'abeilles «africanisées». De nouvelles reines ont été élevées à partir de larves de moins de 3 jours; beaucoup de celles-ci et beucoup d'œufs ont été déplacés par les ouvrières dans des cellules de reines nouvellement construites. Le taux de mortalité les ouvrières dans des cellules de reines nouvellement ouvrières a été élevé, en moyenne de 50%, après l'orphelinage expérimental. A l'éclosion des nouvelles reines, 2/3 des colonies ont essaimé. Ces processus de remplacement de la reine et d'essaimage après la perte de celle-ci diffèrent de ceux des essaimages de reproduction par le manque de préparation avant la perte de la reine, un intervalle de temps sans rene plus long, et une absence de l'essaimage. Par ailleurs il n'y a pas de corrélation entre le nombre d'essaims et la surface occupée par le couvain operculé ou le nombre de cellules royales.
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Contribution: 1695 from the Department of Entomology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, U.S.A.
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Winston, M.L. Events following queen removal in colonies of Africanized honeybees in South America. Ins. Soc 26, 373–381 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02223556
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02223556