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Reproductive Dominance Within Colonies of Bombus Terrestris (L.)

Reproductive Dominance Within Colonies of Bombus Terrestris (L.) REPRODUCTIVE DOMINANCE WITHIN COLONIES OF BOMBUS TERRESTRIS (L.) by JAN VAN DER BLOM1) (Laboratory of Comparative Physiology, University of Utrecht, Jan van Galenstraat 40, 3572 LA Utrecht, The Netherlands) (With 2 Figures) (Acc. 15-VI-1985) Introduction Bumblebees are primitive eusocial insects (MICHENER, 1974) with an an- nual life cycle. Only the young queens hibernate. In the colonies of certain bumblebees, e.g. Bombus terrestris, egg-laying workers may appear beside the laying queen. At about the time that the workers begin to lay, both the queen and the workers engage in overt ag- gression and 'egg robbery'. The workers may even kill the queen. This was already mentioned by HOBER in 1801, by SLADEN in 1912 and has been described by many authors since. So far, not much is known about the proximate factors that regulate this typical worker behaviour, or about its ultimate significance. The queen initially only produces fertilized (diploid) eggs from which workers and queens arise. In the last phase of colony development she lays unfertilized (haploid) eggs, from which males arise (MICHENER, 1974; OwEN & PLOwRicHT, 1982). Bumblebee workers do not mate and consequently can only produce sons. However, for some reasons the possibility of passing on http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Behaviour Brill

Reproductive Dominance Within Colonies of Bombus Terrestris (L.)

VAN DER BLOM, Jan
Behaviour , Volume 97 (1-2): 37 – Jan 1, 1986
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1986 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0005-7959
eISSN
1568-539X
DOI
10.1163/156853986X00306
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

REPRODUCTIVE DOMINANCE WITHIN COLONIES OF BOMBUS TERRESTRIS (L.) by JAN VAN DER BLOM1) (Laboratory of Comparative Physiology, University of Utrecht, Jan van Galenstraat 40, 3572 LA Utrecht, The Netherlands) (With 2 Figures) (Acc. 15-VI-1985) Introduction Bumblebees are primitive eusocial insects (MICHENER, 1974) with an an- nual life cycle. Only the young queens hibernate. In the colonies of certain bumblebees, e.g. Bombus terrestris, egg-laying workers may appear beside the laying queen. At about the time that the workers begin to lay, both the queen and the workers engage in overt ag- gression and 'egg robbery'. The workers may even kill the queen. This was already mentioned by HOBER in 1801, by SLADEN in 1912 and has been described by many authors since. So far, not much is known about the proximate factors that regulate this typical worker behaviour, or about its ultimate significance. The queen initially only produces fertilized (diploid) eggs from which workers and queens arise. In the last phase of colony development she lays unfertilized (haploid) eggs, from which males arise (MICHENER, 1974; OwEN & PLOwRicHT, 1982). Bumblebee workers do not mate and consequently can only produce sons. However, for some reasons the possibility of passing on

Journal

Behaviour – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 1986

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