Progress 08/01/04 to 09/30/07
Outputs
Progress Report Objectives (from AD-416) 1) Determine if high usurpation rates of queenless colonies are due to a greater number of usurpation attempts, greater success of each usurpation attempt, or both; 2) Determine whether a colony's volatile profile affects the probability of usurpation attempts or the probability of usurpation success; 3) Determine whether the volatile profile of a host queen affects her chances of survival; 4) Determine how elimination of the host queen is accomplished; and 5) Determine whether usurpation swarm workers have unique non-volatile signature that facilitates their entry into host hive. Approach (from AD-416) In honey bees, the production of chemical signals or the detection of chemical cues is likely to have three uses during usurpation: 1) locating a susceptible host colony, 2) evading host defense mechanisms, and 3) replacing the host colony's queen. Understanding these communication systems should allow us to tap into and disrupt the usurpation process in a safe and sustainable manner. Documents Trust withAlmond Bd. of CA. Log 26139. Significant Activities that Support Special Target Populations This report serves to document research conducted under a Trust Agreement between ARS and the Almond Board of California. Additional details of research can be found in the report for the parent project 5342-21000-014-00D, Improving Crop Pollination Rates by Increasing Colony Populations and Defining Pollination Mechanisms. In FY 2007, we have found that a volatile queen-specific compound, E-'- ocimene, plays a role in queen acceptance and might also be a cue to invading swarms that communicates the presence of a queen. Workers in invasion swarms do not appear to force their way into colonies, but instead bypass the colony�s guard bees by either offering food or acquiring the odors of workers in the colony. Invading workers protect their queen during the invasion process by forming a cluster around her. The workers release the queen about 48hrs after the invasion probably after she has begun to lay or at least acquired the colony�s odors. In this way, the invasion queen is �introduced� to a colony in a way that is similar to how beekeepers introduce new queens in colonies. The cluster of workers surrounding and protecting the invasion swarm queen also is similar to how workers protect a particular virgin queen in colonies when multiple queens exist during the natural requeening process. Thus, usurpation swarms may have adapted already existing worker behaviors towards queens to successfully protect and introduce them into colonies following an invasion. Progress on this project was monitored by annual reports to the Almond Board and presentations at the Annual Meeting of the Almond Board.
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Progress 10/01/05 to 09/30/06
Outputs
Progress Report 4d Progress report. This report serves to document research conducted under a Trust Agreement between ARS and the Almond Board of California. Additional details of research can be found in the report for the parent project 5342-21000-014-00D, Improving Pollination Rates by Increasing Colony Populations and Defining Pollination Mechanisms. Usurpation attempts by African swarms occur more frequently to queenless colonies and often are more successful there compared with queenright colonies. We have developed methods for sampling nest odor and demonstrated that queen loss affects nest odor. The difference in nest odor between a queenright and queenless colony might be detected by usurpation swarms and be a basis for their selection of queenless colonies. We have found that swarms eliminate the European queen in the host colony by surrounding and killing her. Death of the European queen is caused by the swarm workers rather than the swarm queen. This
may occur either before or after entry of the swarm queen into the hive. Finally, we determined that usurpation swarms do not have unique chemical signatures that differ from those of African bees in swarms that are not attempting to usurp a colony. The findings suggest that usurping bees are gaining acceptance within the host colony by blending in rather than dominating or entering by force. Usurpation swarms may be capable of acquiring the host colonys nestmate-recognition cues, thereby bypassing the hosts defenses.
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