Moritz Robin F A, Pflugfelder Jochen, Crewe Robin M
Institut für Zoologie, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle/Wittenberg, Kröllwitzer Strasse 44, 06099 Halle/Saale, Germany.
Naturwissenschaften. 2003 Aug;90(8):378-81. doi: 10.1007/s00114-003-0445-0. Epub 2003 Jul 18.
Pheromonal signals associated with queen and worker policing prevent worker reproduction and have been identified as important factors for establishing harmony in the honeybee (Apis mellifera) colony. However, "anarchic workers", which can evade both mechanisms, have been detected at low frequency in several honeybee populations. Worker bees of the Cape honeybee, Apis mellifera capensis, also show this anarchistic trait but to an extreme degree. They can develop into so called "pseudoqueens", which release a pheromonal bouquet very similar to that of queens. They prime and release very similar reactions in sterile workers to those of true queens (e.g. suppress ovary activation; release retinue behavior). Here we show in an experimental bioassay that lethal fights between these parasitic workers and the queen (similar to queen-queen fights) occur, resulting in the death of either queen or worker. Although it is usually the queen that attacks the parasitic workers and kills many of them, in a few cases the workers succeeded in killing the queen. If this also occurs in a parasitized colony where the queen encounters many parasitic workers, she may eventually be killed in one of the repeated fights she engages in.
与蜂王和工蜂监督相关的信息素信号可阻止工蜂繁殖，并且已被确认为是建立蜜蜂（西方蜜蜂）蜂群和谐的重要因素。然而，在几个蜜蜂种群中已检测到低频出现的“无政府主义工蜂”，它们能够避开这两种机制。海角蜜蜂（Apis mellifera capensis）的工蜂也表现出这种无政府主义特征，但程度更为极端。它们能够发育成所谓的“假蜂王”，释放出与蜂王非常相似的一组信息素。它们引发并在不育工蜂中释放出与真正蜂王引发的反应非常相似的反应（例如抑制卵巢激活；释放侍从行为）。在此我们通过一项实验生物测定表明，这些寄生性工蜂与蜂王之间会发生致命争斗（类似于蜂王与蜂王之间的争斗），导致蜂王或工蜂死亡。尽管通常是蜂王攻击寄生性工蜂并杀死其中许多，但在少数情况下工蜂成功杀死了蜂王。如果在一个寄生有许多寄生性工蜂的蜂群中也发生这种情况，蜂王可能最终会在其参与的多次争斗中的某一次中被杀死。
