In polygynous (multiple queens per nest) ants, queen dispersal is often limited with young queens being recruited within the parental colony. This mode of dispersal leads to local resource competition between nestmate queens and is frequently associated with extremely male-biased sex ratios at the population level. The queen-replenishment hypothesis has been recently proposed to explain colony ...

Reproductive cooperation confers benefits, but simultaneously creates conflicts among cooperators. Queens in multi-queen colonies of ants share a nest and its resources, but reproductive competition among queens often results in unequal reproduction. Two mutually non-exclusive factors may produce such inequality in reproduction: worker intervention or queen traits. Workers may intervene by favo...

Colonies of the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata consist of a single egg layer (queen) and a number of non-egg-laying workers. Although the queen is a docile individual, not at the top of the behavioral dominance hierarchy of the colony, she maintains complete reproductive monopoly. If the queen is lost or removed, one and only one of the workers [potential queen (PQ)] becomes hype...

Social evolution in honey bees has produced strong queen-worker dimorphism for plastic traits that depend on larval nutrition. The honey bee developmental programme includes both larval components that determine plastic growth responses to larval nutrition and nurse components that regulate larval nutrition. We studied how these two components contribute to variation in worker and queen body si...

The sporadic death of queen palms in one county in Florida was first brought to our attention in 2003. Recent conversations throughout the southern half of the state where queen palms are grown indicate the problem was observed in other counties at approximately the same time, which means we cannot blame the 2004 hurricane season for the spread of the problem. While initially less than 1% of th...

In an ant colony, the queen is the single reproducer and can interact with her workers via pheromones and cuticular compounds. However, in most species queen importance is not restricted to reproduction: in the initial development of the colony, her presence might play a more important role. In this work, we studied the effects of queen absence on workers behavior displayed in the foraging aren...

in order to evaluate eight different protein sources in honey bee nutrition, some experiments were conducted as a completely randomized designs with four replicates and three steps incubator, field and overwintering in isfahan region. protein sources were lentil flour, soybean flour, soybean meal, bread yeast, wheat gluten, skim milk powder, fish meal and pollen. results showed that the longevi...

Reproductive division of labor is one of the defining traits of honey bees (Apis mellifera), with non-reproductive tasks being performed by workers while a single queen normally monopolizes reproduction. The decentralized organization of a honey bee colony is maintained in large part by a bouquet of queen-produced pheromones, the distribution of which is facilitated by contact among workers thr...

For those of you familiar with previous updates, you might recall the title was “New Disease of Queen Palms (Syagrus romanzoffiana) in the South Florida Landscape.” The change in the title reflects additional information obtained since the last update prepared in May 2006. This document is a summary of information regarding this new disease. If you only want to know the “bottom line,” please fa...

Unlike the queens of other primitively eusocial species, Ropalidia marginata queens are strikingly docile and non-aggressive individuals, never at the top of the behavioural dominance hierarchy of their colonies. Nevertheless, these queens are completely successful at suppressing worker reproduction, suggesting that they do not use aggression but employ some other mechanism (e.g. pheromones) to...