DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Worker Nepotism During Queen Combat in Honey Bees

Cornell University, Ithaca NY

Investigators

Abstract

DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Worker nepotism during queen combat in honey bees Principal Investigator (thesis advisor): Thomas D. Seeley Doctoral Studies Graduate Student: David C. Gilley Nepotism is a widespread phenomenon in social animals, yet there is little evidence of it within the highly cooperative societies of insects, such as honey bees. Evolutionary theory predicts that the workers in honey bee colonies should show nepotism when there are multiple queens in a colony and they are fighting to the death to determine who will be the colony's next queen. Each worker has the opportunity to help a full-sister queen (with whom the worker shares three quarters of her genes) kill half-sister queens (with whom the worker shares only one quarter of her genes). The graduate student will determine if honey bee workers behave nepotistically during queen fighting. He will accomplish this goal in three steps (steps 1 and 2 have been completed). 1. He has observed queen fighting in a natural context and has determined that two worker behaviors, worker-queen aggression and queen-cell guarding, are most likely to be nepotistic. 2. He has labeled for individual identification the workers in five colonies and has recorded their worker-queen aggression and queen-cell guarding during subsequent queen fighting. 3. He will use DNA microsatellites to determine if the workers from step 2 more often aggressed half-sister queens and more often guarded full-sister cells. Evidence of nepotism in honey bee colonies will show that even in highly cooperative societies nepotism will occur when the benefit of nepotism (a greater share of the colony's reproductive output) exceeds the cost of nepotism (a smaller total colony reproductive output).