Virgin queen attraction toward males in honey bees

Abstract Although the honeybee is a crucial agricultural agent and a prominent scientific model organism, crucial aspects of its reproductive behaviour are still unknown. During the mating season, honeybee males, the drones, gather in congregations 10–40 m above ground. Converging evidence suggests...

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Autores principales:	Florian Bastin, Hanna Cholé, Grégory Lafon, Jean-Christophe Sandoz
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2017
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/a7481ef2691b432cb7bac023d5ae4345
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:a7481ef2691b432cb7bac023d5ae43452021-12-02T15:06:18ZVirgin queen attraction toward males in honey bees10.1038/s41598-017-06241-92045-2322https://doaj.org/article/a7481ef2691b432cb7bac023d5ae43452017-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-06241-9https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Although the honeybee is a crucial agricultural agent and a prominent scientific model organism, crucial aspects of its reproductive behaviour are still unknown. During the mating season, honeybee males, the drones, gather in congregations 10–40 m above ground. Converging evidence suggests that drones emit a pheromone that can attract other drones, thereby increasing the size of the congregation. Virgin queens join the vicinity of the congregation after it has formed, and mate with as many as 20 males in mid-air. It is still unclear which sensory cues help virgin queens find drone congregations in the first place. Beside visual cues for long-range orientation, queens may use olfactory cues. We thus tested virgin queens’ olfactory orientation on a walking simulator in which they have full control over odour stimulation. We show that sexually-mature virgin queens are attracted to the odour bouquet from a group of living drones. They are not attracted to the bouquet from a group of workers. In addition, non-sexually receptive females (workers) of the same age are not attracted to the drone odour bouquet. Interpreted in the context of mating, these results may suggest that virgin queens use volatile olfactory cues from the drones to find the congregations.Florian BastinHanna CholéGrégory LafonJean-Christophe SandozNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Florian Bastin Hanna Cholé Grégory Lafon Jean-Christophe Sandoz Virgin queen attraction toward males in honey bees
description	Abstract Although the honeybee is a crucial agricultural agent and a prominent scientific model organism, crucial aspects of its reproductive behaviour are still unknown. During the mating season, honeybee males, the drones, gather in congregations 10–40 m above ground. Converging evidence suggests that drones emit a pheromone that can attract other drones, thereby increasing the size of the congregation. Virgin queens join the vicinity of the congregation after it has formed, and mate with as many as 20 males in mid-air. It is still unclear which sensory cues help virgin queens find drone congregations in the first place. Beside visual cues for long-range orientation, queens may use olfactory cues. We thus tested virgin queens’ olfactory orientation on a walking simulator in which they have full control over odour stimulation. We show that sexually-mature virgin queens are attracted to the odour bouquet from a group of living drones. They are not attracted to the bouquet from a group of workers. In addition, non-sexually receptive females (workers) of the same age are not attracted to the drone odour bouquet. Interpreted in the context of mating, these results may suggest that virgin queens use volatile olfactory cues from the drones to find the congregations.
format	article
author	Florian Bastin Hanna Cholé Grégory Lafon Jean-Christophe Sandoz
author_facet	Florian Bastin Hanna Cholé Grégory Lafon Jean-Christophe Sandoz
author_sort	Florian Bastin
title	Virgin queen attraction toward males in honey bees
title_short	Virgin queen attraction toward males in honey bees
title_full	Virgin queen attraction toward males in honey bees
title_fullStr	Virgin queen attraction toward males in honey bees
title_full_unstemmed	Virgin queen attraction toward males in honey bees
title_sort	virgin queen attraction toward males in honey bees
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/a7481ef2691b432cb7bac023d5ae4345
work_keys_str_mv	AT florianbastin virginqueenattractiontowardmalesinhoneybees AT hannachole virginqueenattractiontowardmalesinhoneybees AT gregorylafon virginqueenattractiontowardmalesinhoneybees AT jeanchristophesandoz virginqueenattractiontowardmalesinhoneybees
_version_	1718388535527997440

Virgin queen attraction toward males in honey bees

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