Monday, 15 November 2004 - 9:06 AM
0106

Sex on a tropical island: Mating flights of Apis mellifera races in Puerto Rico

Alberto Galindo-Cardona, coleopterino@hotmail.com and Tugrul Giray, tgiray2@yahoo.com. University of Puerto Rico, Department of Biology, PO Box 23360, San Juan, PR

Reproductive isolation is a mechanism that avoids crossing between related species. In genus Apis males (drones) and reproductive females (queens) display species specific mating flight times during the day. Our objective is to compare this behavior across Africanized and European honey bees in Puerto Rico. We predicted that being on an island may modify the mating behavior of bees because of genetic isolation from the mainland. We are comparing mating flight time of Africanized and European queens and drones. Africanized bees represent the local honey bee population in Puerto Rico. European bees are purchased from the mainland producers, and represent the mainland population. The race assignment of source colonies for test individuals were confirmed by established morphological and mitochondrial DNA assays.


Species 1: Hymenoptera Apidae Apis mellifera (honey bee)
Keywords: mating, behavior

[ Recorded presentation ] Recorded presentation

See more of Student Competition for the President's Prize, Section Cb. Apiculture and Social Insects, and Cd2. Biology and Ecology, and Fb1. Urban Entomology
See more of Student Competition TMP

See more of The 2004 ESA Annual Meeting and Exhibition