The influence of a queen-produced substance, 9HDA,on swarm clustering behavior in the honeybeeApis mellifera L. |
| |
| Authors: | Mark L. Winston Keith N. Slessor Michael J. Smirle Ali A. Kandil |
| |
| Affiliation: | (1) Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, V5A 1S6 Burnaby, B.C., Canada;(2) Department of Chemistry, Simon Fraser University, V5A 1S6 Burnaby, B.C., Canada;(3) Department of Biological Sciences, Pest Management Center, Simon Fraser University, V5A 1S6 Burnaby, B.C., Canada |
| |
| Abstract: | The effect of enantiomers of the queen-produced substance, 9-hydroxy-(E)-2-decenoic acid (9HDA) on swarm clustering behavior of the honeybeeApis mellifera was studied. Caged queens were removed from the swarms at the start of each test and were replaced with small Petri dishes containing one of the following treatments: 100  gS(+) enantiomer of 9HDA, 100 gR(-) enantiomer of 9HDA, 200 g racemic (R, S) 9HDA, and a vehicle-treated control. Each swarm was considered to have dispersed when it had lost 50% of its starting weight. All treatments with 9HDA resulted in significantly longer swarm aggregation when compared with the control. Enantiomers were not shown to have different effects at theP  0.05 level of significance. However, observations on swarm behavior indicated that theR(-) enantiomer was the most active in retarding swarm dispersal. |
| |
| Keywords: | Honeybee swarming 9-hydroxy-(E)-2-decenoic acid pheromone chirality Apis mellifera Hymenoptera Apidae |
| 本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录！ |
|
