Where Is the Honey Bee Queen Flying? The Original Case of a Foraging Queen

During a bee fauna survey in the countryside of northern Sardinia, a honey bee queen (<i>Apis mellifera</i> L.) was detected while foraging on a borage (<i>Borago officinalis</i> L.) flower in Uri, Province of Sassari, Italy, most likely during an orientation flight before ma...

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Autores principales:	Ignazio Floris, Michelina Pusceddu, Pietro Niolu, Alberto Satta
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	queen bee <i>Apis mellifera</i> foraging activity feeding behaviour Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/808b0fd0f7e44c10bc5a7f60efa072f8
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:808b0fd0f7e44c10bc5a7f60efa072f82021-11-25T17:59:57ZWhere Is the Honey Bee Queen Flying? The Original Case of a Foraging Queen10.3390/insects121110352075-4450https://doaj.org/article/808b0fd0f7e44c10bc5a7f60efa072f82021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/12/11/1035https://doaj.org/toc/2075-4450During a bee fauna survey in the countryside of northern Sardinia, a honey bee queen (<i>Apis mellifera</i> L.) was detected while foraging on a borage (<i>Borago officinalis</i> L.) flower in Uri, Province of Sassari, Italy, most likely during an orientation flight before mating. Morphological details, detectable from photos with the naked eye and stereomicroscopic observations, confirmed that the honey bee queen was sucking nectar from a flower. The enormous development of the abdomen, lack of pollen-collecting structures in the legs and other characteristics such as the typical distally bilobed shape of the mandibles, with long hairs on their outer surface, proved the structural differences between the queen specimen and the other castes of bees. The queen’s proboscis, which is shorter compared to the workers, may have been counterbalanced by the shape and nectar production of the borage flower. This new observation proves that the queen can feed herself under natural conditions, likely to obtain the energy required for flying. Although we cannot exclude disturbing factors that could explain this foraging behaviour of a queen observed for the first time, this note opens a new scenario and discusses this new finding in the context of the available literature on the queen’s behaviour and questions to be answered.Ignazio FlorisMichelina PuscedduPietro NioluAlberto SattaMDPI AGarticlequeen bee<i>Apis mellifera</i>foraging activityfeeding behaviourScienceQENInsects, Vol 12, Iss 1035, p 1035 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	queen bee <i>Apis mellifera</i> foraging activity feeding behaviour Science Q
spellingShingle	queen bee <i>Apis mellifera</i> foraging activity feeding behaviour Science Q Ignazio Floris Michelina Pusceddu Pietro Niolu Alberto Satta Where Is the Honey Bee Queen Flying? The Original Case of a Foraging Queen
description	During a bee fauna survey in the countryside of northern Sardinia, a honey bee queen (<i>Apis mellifera</i> L.) was detected while foraging on a borage (<i>Borago officinalis</i> L.) flower in Uri, Province of Sassari, Italy, most likely during an orientation flight before mating. Morphological details, detectable from photos with the naked eye and stereomicroscopic observations, confirmed that the honey bee queen was sucking nectar from a flower. The enormous development of the abdomen, lack of pollen-collecting structures in the legs and other characteristics such as the typical distally bilobed shape of the mandibles, with long hairs on their outer surface, proved the structural differences between the queen specimen and the other castes of bees. The queen’s proboscis, which is shorter compared to the workers, may have been counterbalanced by the shape and nectar production of the borage flower. This new observation proves that the queen can feed herself under natural conditions, likely to obtain the energy required for flying. Although we cannot exclude disturbing factors that could explain this foraging behaviour of a queen observed for the first time, this note opens a new scenario and discusses this new finding in the context of the available literature on the queen’s behaviour and questions to be answered.
format	article
author	Ignazio Floris Michelina Pusceddu Pietro Niolu Alberto Satta
author_facet	Ignazio Floris Michelina Pusceddu Pietro Niolu Alberto Satta
author_sort	Ignazio Floris
title	Where Is the Honey Bee Queen Flying? The Original Case of a Foraging Queen
title_short	Where Is the Honey Bee Queen Flying? The Original Case of a Foraging Queen
title_full	Where Is the Honey Bee Queen Flying? The Original Case of a Foraging Queen
title_fullStr	Where Is the Honey Bee Queen Flying? The Original Case of a Foraging Queen
title_full_unstemmed	Where Is the Honey Bee Queen Flying? The Original Case of a Foraging Queen
title_sort	where is the honey bee queen flying? the original case of a foraging queen
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/808b0fd0f7e44c10bc5a7f60efa072f8
work_keys_str_mv	AT ignaziofloris whereisthehoneybeequeenflyingtheoriginalcaseofaforagingqueen AT michelinapusceddu whereisthehoneybeequeenflyingtheoriginalcaseofaforagingqueen AT pietroniolu whereisthehoneybeequeenflyingtheoriginalcaseofaforagingqueen AT albertosatta whereisthehoneybeequeenflyingtheoriginalcaseofaforagingqueen
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Where Is the Honey Bee Queen Flying? The Original Case of a Foraging Queen

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