ABSTRACT
Bees, wasps, and ants are among the most highly invasive social insects. Theoretically, the single-locus complementary sex determination (sl-CSD) would hinder the establishment of invasive population with limited founders. Apis cerana has colonized many regions with anthropogenic movement, with devastating effects on the commercial A. mellifera. Here, we summarized the distribution and sex determination mechanism of A. cerana, the recent research results about the invasive A. cerana in Australia, and analyzed how they counteracted the handicap of their sex determination system by the queen's extreme polyandry, worker's reproduction, balancing selection and thelytoky. The knowledge reviewed here could be used as the reference to reveal the establishment mechanism of invasive populations of related social insects.
Subject(s)
Wasps , Animals , Bees , ReproductionABSTRACT
Based on the 1893 specimens collected from Hebei Province, Beijing City, and Tianjin City in 2005-2009, and the specimens deposited in the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, this paper analyzed the species diversity and colony characteristics of bumblebees in the Hebei region of North China. A total of 32 species belonging to 8 subgenera of Bombus were recorded, with 32 species in Hebei Province, 18 species in Beijing, and 5 species in Tianjin. The bumblebee in Taihang Mountains, Yanshan Mountains, and Bashang Plateau had the highest richness and abundance, and its food-plant included 80 species of 21 families, among which, Compositae, Leguminosae, and Labiatae were most important. Five bumblebee species, i. e., Bombus hypocrita, B. ignitus, B. patagiatus, B. pyrosoma, and B. picipes, had the largest colony, with more than 110 workers, 160 drones, and 30 young queens produced per colony. The success in rearing colonies of each of the 5 species by queens was > 50%, demonstrating that these 5 species had the potential to be mass-reared, with important applied value for crop pollination.
Subject(s)
Bees/classification , Bees/growth & development , Biodiversity , Animals , Behavior, Animal/physiology , China , Population DynamicsABSTRACT
From 2004 to 2006, this paper studied the foraging behavior and pollination ecology of two Chinese bee species Bombus lucorum L. and Apis mellifera L. in greenhouse peach garden in Beijing. The results showed that both of the bee species were able to substitute manual work to provide effective pollination, but their foraging behavior and pollination effect differed significantly in terms of their working timing and visiting frequency, temperature, and the location of flowers on peach tree. B. lucorum L. preferred to collect pollen and release it mainly by vibrating their wings, while A. mellifera L. gathered and released pollen mainly through body touch on flowers. Moreover, B. lucorum L. could work at lower temperature and visit more flowers each day, while the activities of A. mellifera L. were easily affected by weather conditions including sunlight and temperature. It was often found that A. mellifera L. bumped itself on greenhouse ceiling because of its strong photokinesis.
