Added Weights Lead to Reduced Flight Behavior and Mating Success in Polyandrous Honey Bee Queens (Apis mellifera)

The variation in animal mating systems has received a great deal of attention from behaviorists and evolutionary biologists alike (Shuster & Wade 2003). Polyandry, the mating of a single female with multiple males, is evolutionarily derived (Hughes et al. 2008) and relatively rare in social insects (Strassmann 2001). Modest polyandry has evolved in Vespula wasps (Ross 1986; Foster & Ratnieks 2001; Goodisman et al. 2002) and several ants, such as Cataglyphis (Pearcy et al. 2004), Cardiocondyla (Schrempf et al. 2005; Lenoir et al. 2007), Pachycondyla (Kellner et al. 2007) and Plagiolepis (Trontti et al. 2007). More pronounced polyandry has evolved in Acromyrmex and Atta leaf cutter ants (Fjerdingstad et al. 1998; Boomsma et al. 1999; Bekkevold et al. 1999; Fjerdingstad & Boomsma 2000; Murakami et al. 2000; Villesen et al. 2002; Sumner et al. 2004), Pogonomyrmex harvester ants (Rheindt et al. 2004; Wiernasz et al. 2004) and Aenictus, Dorylus, Eciton and Neivamyrmex army ants (Denny et al. 2004; Kronauer et al. 2004, 2007). However, the highest degree of polyandry can be found in Apis honey bees (Estoup et al. 1994; Moritz et al. 1995; Palmer & Oldroyd 2000; Wattanachaiyingcharoen et al. 2003; Tarpy Correspondence Olav Rueppell, Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 1000 Spring Garden Street, 312 Eberhart Building, Greensboro, NC, 27403, USA. E-mail: [email protected]