http://www.tsusinvasives.org/dotAsset/3b275f2a-205c-4012-b48a-038a13dddf8f.pdf

Biology and control of Varroa destructor

Division of labor is fundamental to the organization of insect societies and is thought to be one of the principal factors in their ecological success (174). Division of labor in insect colonies is characterized by two features: (a) different activities are performed simultaneously by (b) groups of specialized individuals, which is assumed to be more efficient than if tasks are performed sequentially by unspecialized individuals (55, 56, 93, 106; but see 37). A key feature of the division of labor in insect colonies is its plasticity. Colonies respond to changing internal and external conditions by adjusting the ratios of individual workers engaged in the various tasks. This is accomplished in large part via the behavioral flexibility of the individual workers themselves. Worker behavioral flexibility contributes to the reproductive success of a colony by enabling it to continue to grow, develop, and ultimately produce a new generation of reproductive males and females despite changing colony conditions. Sensitivity to change within a structured labor system is important to social organization, but only now are we beginning to understand this concept. The

Regulation of division of labor in insect societies

I Honeybees of the World.- 1 The Genus Apis.- 2 Stingless Bees (Meliponinae).- 3 Evolution.- 4 Geographic Variability.- 5 Methods of Honeybee Taxonomy: Past and Present.- 6 Morphometric Analysis and Classification.- 7 Apis florea Fabricius 1787: 305.- 8 Apis dorsata Fabricius 1793: 328.- 9 Apis cerana Fabricius 1793: 327.- II The Western Honeybee Apis mellifera L. Classification and Natural History.- 10 Apis mellifera Linnaeus 1758: 576 General Introduction to a Polymorphic Species with an Unusual Range of Adaptation.- 11 The Races of the Near East (Irano-Ponto-Mediterranean Area).- 12 Honeybees of Tropical Africa.- 13 Honeybees of the Western Mediterranean.- 14 Honeybees of the Central Mediterranean and Southeastern Europe.- References.

Biogeography and Taxonomy of Honeybees

In this note, we specify an "individual-based" continuous-time model for swarm aggregation in n-dimensional space and study its stability properties. We show that the individuals (autonomous agents or biological creatures) will form a cohesive swarm in a finite time. Moreover, we obtain an explicit bound on the swarm size, which depends only on the parameters of the swarm model.

/pdf/stability-analysis-of-swarms-56hd4m39zs.pdf

Stability analysis of swarms

The honey bee is an important model system for increasing understanding of molecular and neural mechanisms underlying social behaviors relevant to the agricultural industry and basic science. The western honey bee, Apis mellifera, has served as a model species, and its genome sequence has been published. In contrast, the genome of the Asian honey bee, Apis cerana, has not yet been sequenced. A. cerana has been raised in Asian countries for thousands of years and has brought considerable economic benefits to the apicultural industry. A cerana has divergent biological traits compared to A. mellifera and it has played a key role in maintaining biodiversity in eastern and southern Asia. Here we report the first whole genome sequence of A. cerana. Using de novo assembly methods, we produced a 238 Mbp draft of the A. cerana genome and generated 10,651 genes. A.cerana-specific genes were analyzed to better understand the novel characteristics of this honey bee species. Seventy-two percent of the A. cerana-specific genes had more than one GO term, and 1,696 enzymes were categorized into 125 pathways. Genes involved in chemoreception and immunity were carefully identified and compared to those from other sequenced insect models. These included 10 gustatory receptors, 119 odorant receptors, 10 ionotropic receptors, and 160 immune-related genes. This first report of the whole genome sequence of A. cerana provides resources for comparative sociogenomics, especially in the field of social insect communication. These important tools will contribute to a better understanding of the complex behaviors and natural biology of the Asian honey bee and to anticipate its future evolutionary trajectory.

/pdf/uncovering-the-novel-characteristics-of-asian-honey-bee-apis-3a4qlod0kk.pdf

Uncovering the novel characteristics of Asian honey bee, Apis cerana, by whole genome sequencing

The natural honey bee nest was studied in detail to better understand the honey bee's natural living conditions. To describe the nest site we made external observations on 39 nests in hollow trees. We collected and dissected 21 of these tree nests to describe the nest architecture. No one tree genus strongly predominates among bee trees. Nest cavities are vertically elongate and approximately cylindrical. Most are 30 to 60 liters in volume and at the base of trees. Nest entrances tend to be small, 10 to 40 cm2, and at the nest bottom. Rough bark outside the entrance is often smoothed by the bees. Inside the nest, a thin layer of hardened plant resins (propolis) coats the cavity walls. Combs are fastened to the walls along their tops and sides, but bees leave small passageways along the comb edges. The basic nest organization is honey storage above, brood nest below, and pollen storage in between. Associated with this arrangement are differences in comb structure. Compared to combs used for honey storage, combs of the brood nest are generally darker and more uniform in width and in cell form. Drone comb is located on the brood nest's periphery. Comparisons amongApis nests indicate the advanced characters inApis mellifera nests arose in response toApis mellifera's adoption of tree cavities for nest sites.

/pdf/the-nest-of-the-honey-bee-apis-mellifera-l-qk5tz61pdk.pdf

The nest of the honey bee (apis mellifera l.)

A device that provides an electric shock makes it possible to collect pure venom from several thousand honey bees (Apis mellifera). The collection apparatus fits underneath the brood chamber of a colony of bees and may be moved from hive to hive. Each colony is "milked" for 5 minutes. An average of 20 hives must be "milked" to obtain 1 gram of venom. Under optimum conditions this quantity of venom is produced by 10,000 worker bees.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/142/3589/228.full.pdf

Venom Collection from Honey Bees

1.

Honey bees exhibit preferences in several nest site properties. The following preferences were identified («>» means «preferred to»): nest height, 5>1 m; entrance area, 12.5>75 cm2; entrance position, bottom >top of nest cavity, entrance direction, southward>northward; nest cavity volume, 10 100 liters.




2.

The data also suggest preferences exist for previously inhabited nest cavities and for nest sites beyond 300 m from the parent colony.




3.

Nest sites with high exposure and visibility were occupied more rapidly than sites with low exposure and visibility. However, this difference probably reflects differential ease of nest site discovery rather than a preference for exposed nest sites.




4.

No preferences were found in the following variables: entrance shape (slit vs. circle), nest cavity shape (cube vs. tall parallelepiped), cavity draftiness (sound vs. drafty), and cavity dryness (wet vs. dry). Cavity draftiness and dryness are probably important to bees, but because bees can seal and waterproof their nests, they may be less demanding about these two nest site variables than about those they cannot modify.




5.

The complex process of nest site selection apparently benefits a honey bee colony in several ways, including facilitation of colony defense and hygiene, simplification of nest construction and microclimate control, and reduction of foraging competition with the parent colony.

Nest site selection by the honey bee,Apis mellifera

Dependence on climate of the virulence of Varroa jacobsoni

The flight of honey bee (Apis mellifera) swarms is the most spectacular and yet one of the least understood aspects of honey bee social behavio’r. Over open countryside a flying swarm forms a small cloud, a swirling mass of some ten to twenty thousand individuals, loudly buzzing along at head height en route to a new home. There have been several studies of the behavior of a swarm as it emerges from its nest, clusters at an interim site, and there selects a new nest site (reviewed by Ambrose 1976 and Seeley and Morse 1978), but no one had ever recorded in detail the subsequent events of the longdistance flight to the new nest site. Moreover, a close analysis of honey bee swarm flight held the promise of clearly demonstrating division of labor within an insect society, in this instance between the scouts and nonscouts in honey bee swarms. The present account treats only the period from agreement upon the new nest site to the entrance of the swarm into its new home. We took special pains to record events simultaneously at the interim cluster site and the new nest site throughout this period. Only in this way could we begin to picture the full complexity of the social organization underlying honey bee swarm flight.

/pdf/the-natural-history-of-the-flight-of-honey-bee-swarms-1lokdq0cv0.pdf

Roger A. Morse

Papers

The nest of the honey bee (apis mellifera l.)

Venom Collection from Honey Bees

Nest site selection by the honey bee,Apis mellifera

Dependence on climate of the virulence of Varroa jacobsoni

The natural history of the flight of honey bee swarms