Commercial greenhouses require high densities of managed bumble bee colonies to pollinate crops such as tomatoes. We examined drifting, a behavioural consequence of introducing closely aggregated colonies into greenhouse habitats. Individual bees frequently drifted into and remained within foreign colonies. Drifting bees were found most often in colonies with higher worker and brood populations and greater pollen stores. Increased intra-colony aggressive interactions were not associated with a higher number of drifting bees. Drifting bees had a significantly greater number of mature eggs in their ovaries than did worker bees residing in colonies hosting drifters, suggesting that drifting increases inclusive fitness of individual worker bees and may not be solely a function of disorientation. Taken together, our results suggest that drifting of adult bees into foreign colonies within greenhouses reflects a combination of disorientation, nectar robbing and incipient social parasitism.
Species 1: Hymenoptera Apidae Bombus occidentalis
Species 2: Hymenoptera Apidae Bombus impatiens
Keywords: worker reproduction
Back to Student Competition Ten-Minute Papers, Cb1, Apiculture and Social Insects
Back to Student Competition TMP Orals
Back to The 2003 ESA Annual Meeting and Exhibition