Institute of Bee Health, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Agroscope, Swiss Bee Research Centre, Bern, Switzerland.
Insect Sci. 2023 Apr;30(2):517-529. doi: 10.1111/1744-7917.13112. Epub 2022 Oct 6.
Multiple mating by both sexes is common among sexually reproducing animals. Small hive beetles (SHB), Aethina tumida, are parasites of bee nests endemic to sub-Saharan Africa and have become a widespread invasive species. Despite the considerable economic damages they can cause, their basic biology remains poorly understood. Here we show that male and female small hive beetles can mate multiple times, suggesting that costs for mating are low in this species. In an invasive A. tumida population in the United States, a combination of laboratory experiments for males and paternity analysis with eight polymorphic DNA microsatellite markers for field-caught females were used to estimate the number of mating by both sexes. The data show that females and males can mate multiple times-females mated with up to eight males, whereas males mated with at least seven females. The results also showed that A. tumida displayed a skewed paternity, although this was not consistent among the tested females. Thus, first or last male advantage seem to be unlikely in A. tumida. Our observations that individuals of both sexes of A. tumida can mate multiple times opens new research avenues for examining drivers of multiple mating and determining the role it may play in promoting biological invasions.
在有性繁殖的动物中，两性都进行多次交配是很常见的。小蜂虻（SHB），Aethina tumida，是撒哈拉以南非洲特有的蜂巢寄生虫，已成为一种广泛入侵的物种。尽管它们可能造成相当大的经济损失，但它们的基本生物学仍然知之甚少。在这里，我们发现雄性和雌性小蜂虻都可以多次交配，这表明在这个物种中交配的成本很低。在美国的一个入侵的 A. tumida 种群中，我们结合了雄性的实验室实验和用 8 个多态性 DNA 微卫星标记对野外捕获的雌性进行的亲子关系分析，以估计两性的交配次数。数据显示，雌性和雄性都可以多次交配——雌性与多达 8 只雄性交配，而雄性与至少 7 只雌性交配。结果还表明，A. tumida 表现出偏父权现象，尽管这在测试的雌性中并不一致。因此，A. tumida 中不太可能存在先雄或后雄优势。我们观察到 A. tumida 的两性个体都可以多次交配，这为研究多次交配的驱动因素以及确定它在促进生物入侵中可能扮演的角色开辟了新的研究途径。
