TITLE:
Genotype and task influence stinging response thresholds of honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) workers of African and European descent
AUTHORS:
Jose L. Uribe-Rubio, Tatiana Petukhova, Ernesto Guzman-Novoa
KEYWORDS:
Apis mellifera; Africanized Honeybees; Genotypic Effects; Defensive Behavior; Response Thresholds; Division of Labor
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Ecology,
Vol.3 No.4,
July
23,
2013
ABSTRACT: The stinging response thresholds of individual European
and Africanized worker honeybees (Apis
mellifera L.) were analyzed. Workers of each genotype performing defense
(guard and soldier bees) and non-defense (nest and forager bees) associated
tasks were collected and exposed to an electric stimulus of 0.5 mA, and the
time they took to sting a leather substrate was recorded. Africanized bees had
significant lower thresholds of response than European bees. Guards and
soldiers were faster to sting than nest and forager bees for the Africanized
genotype, whereas for the European genotype,
guards stung significantly faster than bees of the other three task
groups. This is the first study that shows that individual bees specialized in
two defensive tasks also have a lower response threshold for stinging. Our
results fit a model of division of labor based on differences in response
thresholds to stimuli among workers of different genotypes and task groups.