Sources of African and European honey bee colonies were identified by mitDNA and allozyme analysis. Hexane extractable compounds from larvae (brood pheromone: BP) were prepared from these sources. Broodless African and European colonies with equal amounts of food stores and empty space were alternately treated as broodless controls, with African BP, and European BP (40 gram larval equivalents). The experiment was replicated six times. The number of pollen and non-pollen foragers entering colonies in a 5-min period beginning one hour after treatments was measured. In general African colonies foraged less for pollen than did European colonies. The races showed higher pollen to non-pollen forager ratios entering colonies in response to their own pheromone. We interpret this as racial preference. There was a significant negative correlation between a neuro-sensory response to sucrose and pollen foraging to African BP for both races of bees, but not to European BP. The releaser and primer effects of race-based BP on pollen foraging are discussed.
Species 1: Hymenoptera Apidae Apis mellifera (honey bee)
Keywords: pheromone, pollen foraging
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