Recognition of conspecifics by honeybee guards uses nonheritable cues acquired in the adult stage

Social insects use both environmental and heritable (genetic) recognition cues when discriminating between nestmates and non-nestmates. In honeybees, Apis mellifera, both types of recognition cues are used, although their relative importance depends upon context, experimental design and environmenta...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAnimal behaviour Vol. 58; no. 3; pp. 643 - 648
Main Authors Downs, Stephen G., Ratnieks, Francis L.W.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Kent Elsevier Ltd 01.09.1999
Elsevier
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Ltd
Subjects
Animal behavior
Animal cognition
Animal ethology
Animal memory
Apidae
Apis mellifera
Bees
Biological and medical sciences
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
hives
Protozoa. Invertebrata
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
social behavior
social recognition
worker honey bees
England
United Kingdom
Great Britain
Europe
Insecta
Intraspecific recognition
Kin recognition
Apidae
Cognition
Physical environment
Social insect
Apis mellifera
Apoidea
Arthropoda
Hymenoptera
Invertebrata
Aculeata
Field study
Worker insect
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Summary:Social insects use both environmental and heritable (genetic) recognition cues when discriminating between nestmates and non-nestmates. In honeybees, Apis mellifera, both types of recognition cues are used, although their relative importance depends upon context, experimental design and environmental factors. Our aim in this study was to investigate which cues honeybees use to discriminate between nestmates and non-nestmates under natural conditions. To do this, we used an assay of nestmate recognition that very closely simulated natural conditions, with naturally occurring guards at actual nest entrances and workers that had been naturally reared and had spent their adult life in a hive. Guards exclusively used environmental recognition cues when encountering entering bees. There was no evidence that guards used heritable cues: related nestmates and unrelated nestmates, unrelated non-nestmates and related non-nestmates all had the same probability of being accepted (ca. 80 versus 20%). Possible reasons why heritable cues are not used are discussed.
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ISSN:0003-3472
1095-8282
DOI:10.1006/anbe.1999.1177