Hit-and-run trophallaxis of small hive beetles

dc.contributor.authorNeumann, Peter
dc.contributor.authorNaef, Jan
dc.contributor.authorCrailsheim, Karl
dc.contributor.authorCrewe, Robin M.
dc.contributor.authorPirk, Christian Walter Werner
dc.date.accessioned2016-02-15T05:38:42Z
dc.date.available2016-02-15T05:38:42Z
dc.date.issued2015-12
dc.description.abstractSome parasites of social insects are able to exploit the exchange of food between nestmates via trophallaxis, because they are chemically disguised as nestmates. However, a few parasites succeed in trophallactic solicitation although they are attacked by workers. The underlying mechanisms are not well understood. The small hive beetle (=SHB), Aethina tumida, is such a parasite of honey bee, Apis mellifera, colonies and is able to induce trophallaxis. Here, we investigate whether SHB trophallactic solicitation is innate and affected by sex and experience. We quantified characteristics of the trophallactic solicitation in SHBs from laboratory-reared individuals that were either bee-na€ıve or had 5 days experience. The data clearly show that SHB trophallactic solicitation is innate and further suggest that it can be influenced by both experience and sex. Inexperienced SHB males begged more often than any of the other groups had longer breaks than their experienced counterparts and a longer soliciting duration than both experienced SHB males and females, suggesting that they start rather slowly and gain more from experience. Successful experienced females and males were not significantly different from each other in relation to successful trophallactic interactions, but had a significantly shorter soliciting duration compared to all other groups, except successful inexperienced females. Trophallactic solicitation success, feeding duration and begging duration were not significantly affected by either SHB sex or experience, supporting the notion that these behaviors are important for survival in host colonies. Overall, success seems to be governed by quality rather than quantity of interactions, thereby probably limiting both SHB energy investment and chance of injury (<1%). Trophallactic solicitation by SHBs is a singular example for an alternative strategy to exploit insect societies without requiring chemical disguise. Hit-and-run trophallaxis is an attractive test system to get an insight into trophallaxis in the social insects.en_ZA
dc.description.librarianhb2015en_ZA
dc.description.sponsorshipVinetum Foundation, Agroscope, SCNAT, National Research Foundation of South Africa and the University of Pretoria.en_ZA
dc.description.urihttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)2045-7758en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationNeumann, P, Naef, J, Crailsheim, K, Crewe, RM & Pirk, CWW 2015, 'Hit-and-run trophallaxis of small hive beetles', Ecology and Evolution, vol. 5, no. 23, pp. 5478-5486.en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn2045-7758
dc.identifier.other10.1002/ece3.1806
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/51366
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.publisherWileyen_ZA
dc.rights© 2015 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley and Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.en_ZA
dc.subjectAethina tumidaen_ZA
dc.subjectApis melliferaen_ZA
dc.subjectHost–parasite interactionen_ZA
dc.subjectSolicitationen_ZA
dc.subjectTrophallaxisen_ZA
dc.subjectSmall hive beetle (SHB)en_ZA
dc.subjectHoneybee (Apis mellifera)en_ZA
dc.titleHit-and-run trophallaxis of small hive beetlesen_ZA
dc.typeArticleen_ZA

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