Nine different genetic families of honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) were compared using summed z-scores (phenotypic values) and a modified selection index (Imod). Imod values incorporated both the phenotypic scores of the different traits and the economic weightings of these traits, as determined by a survey of commercial Ontario beekeepers. Largely because of the high weight all beekeepers place...

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 betw...

An aqueous extract of royal jelly from Apis mellifera produced hypoglycemia when injected into larvae of Manduca sexta. Application of specific radioimmunoassay to the partially-purified extract showed that royal jelly contains several insulin-like peptides, the major immunoreactive component of which has an apparent mol. wt similar to that of bovine insulin. These results suggest the existence...

Until recently, only three species of Varroa mites had been recorded: Varroa jacobsoni, V. underwoodi and V. rindereri. Of these, V. jacobsoni had received the most attention from researchers, primarily because it was believed to have switched host from the Asian bee (Apis cerana) to the European honey bee (A. mellifera) some 40-50 years ago, then spread to become a serious parasite of A. melli...

Predator-prey relationships between sympatric species allow the evolution of defense behaviors, such as honeybee colonies defending their nests against predatory wasps. We investigated the predator-prey relationship between the honeybee (Apis mellifera ligustica) and the European wasp (Vespula germanica) by evaluating the effectiveness of attack and defense behaviors, which have coevolved in th...

Axis formation is a key step in development, but studies indicate that genes involved in insect axis formation are relatively fast evolving. Orthodenticle genes have conserved roles, often with hunchback, in maternal anterior patterning in several insect species. We show that two orthodenticle genes, otd1 and otd2, and hunchback act as maternal anterior patterning genes in the honeybee (Apis me...

The odor localization strategy induced by odors learned via differential conditioning of the proboscis extension response was investigated in honeybees. In response to reward-associated but not non-reward-associated odors, learners walked longer paths than non-learners and control bees. When orange odor reward association was learned, the path length and the body turn angles were small during o...

Aasrancr: Two African races of the honey bee (Äpis mellifera capansis and A. m. scutellatal have a signilicantly shorter postcapping stage of worker brood than A. rn. carnica. An average within-race heritability of this character is estimated as h2 = 0.8. Reciprocal crosses between the races show that the duration of the postcapping stage also is maternaffy affected (m = 0.23). As the reproduct...

Chalkbrood disease in honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) is caused by an infection with Ascosphaera apis. Disease expression requires the consumption of fungal spores and a predisposing condition in the susceptible brood. A. apis spores within sheets of wax foundation could be a source of inoculum leading to chalkbrood, but it is also possible that these spores remain confined in the wax and do not ...

The engineering of large-scale decentralised systems requires sound methodologies to guarantee the attainment of the desired macroscopic system-level behaviour given the microscopic individual-level implementation. While a general-purpose methodology is currently out of reach, specific solutions can be given to broad classes of problems by means of well-conceived design patterns. We propose a d...