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Benefit Functions of Promoting Multiple Mating in Honeybee Queens
by
Robert Gove
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Coauthors: Miranda Hayworth (UNC Greensboro);
Nels Johnson (UNC Greensboro);
Megan Leagon (UNC Greensboro);
Matthew Wilhelm (UNC Greensboro);
Dr. Maya Chhetri (UNC Greensboro);
Dr. Olav Rueppell (UNC Greensboro)
The honeybee, Apis mellifera, exhibits extreme polyandry. After insemination, the male (drone) plugs the queen's genital opening with his endophallus, known as the mating sign. This leads to his immediate death and has been shown to promote additional mating of the queen, casting doubt on the adaptiveness of this behavior: the drone forgoes the chance of future mating and effectively dilutes his genetic contribution to the next generation. On the other hand, the mating sign may be beneficial because it increases the genetic variability of the queen's offspring and greater genetic variability increases colony fitness: Colonies with greater genetic variability are less susceptible to disease and benefit from a more efficient division of labor. Genetic variability also decreases the effects of sterile drone production. In this study we compared the benefit functions of promoting multiple matings based on sterile drone production, disease resistance, and division of labor. With these functions in mind, we analyzed the evolutionary stability of the drone behavior 'to plug' or 'not to plug'.
Date received: July 15, 2007
Copyright © 2007 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # caur-71.