Three substances ejected by

Until now, all reports state that during eversion of the drone endophallus, two substances are ejected, viz. semen and mucus, and that the mating sign of a queen bee consists of the bulb of the endophallus filled with mucus. I examined substances ejected during eversion of drone endophalli, as well as substances present in the mating sign. In the fully everted endophallus, creamy semen was found near the chitinized plates, amorphous white mucus was located further distally and a transparent-whitish condensed substance appeared at the end of the everted endophallus. In mating signs, white mucus was found near the bursa copulatrix of the queens and a transparent-whitish condensed substance in the distal part of the sign. Microscopic examinations showed that the transparent-whitish substance consisted of fragments of epithelial membranes sloughed from mucus glands. Thus, not two substances, but three, viz. semen, mucus and epithelial membranes, are ejected during endophallus eversion and natural mating with queen bees

Not the Honey Bee (Apis mellifera L.) Queen, but the Drone Determines the Termination of the Nuptial Flight and the Onset of Oviposition - The Polemics, Abnegations, Corrections and Supplements

This paper emphasizes the topics concerning honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) mating biology, which have not been described in the recently published book of Koeniger et al. (2014). At the beginning of natural mating, the drone becomes paralyzed. However, the muscles in the abdomen continuously contract shrinking the abdomen till mating has ended and the pair have separated. It is not the queen that ends the nuptial flight. The termination of the nuptial flight is determined by the drone, which fails to remove the mating sign of the previous drone from the sting chamber of the queen. The mating sign originates from two or more drones. The queen also does not determine the age at which she starts oviposition. It is the last drone, which tried to mate, but failed to remove the mating sign of the predecessor, that determines the age that the queen starts oviposition. The book of Koeniger et al. (2014), together with this paper, present the current knowledge of the mating biology of honey bees

SURVIVAL AND PROPHYLACTIC CONTROL OF TROPILAELAPS CLAREAE INFESTING APIS MELLIFERA COLONIES IN AFGHANISTAN

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Why the eversion of the endophallus of honey bee drone stops at the partly everted stage and significance of this

After the drones are excited, they evert the endophallus, which mostly stops at partly everted stage with a slender tip at the end. The reason of the stop and the appearance of the tip is not known. There are transversal hairy folds at the ventral border of the cervix of honeybee drone endophallus. They form a duct inside the cervix. The dorsal walls of the duct come together at an acute angle and join at the summit quite tight. During partial eversion, the cervical duct appears at the end; however, its dorsal walls do not open (separate). The diameter of the duct is 0.4–0.5 mm. The bulb of the endophallus is not able to pass through such a small duct and therefore the eversion stops. Only after the pressure inside partly everted endophallus is increased sufficiently, the dorsal walls of the duct are opened, the interior of the cervix is enlarged and the bulb passes through it, which results in full eversion. The increased pressure inside the endophallus results in the semen being ejected with greater force. This is important during multiple matings of queen bees

Temperature correlated dorso-ventral abdomen flipping of Apis laboriosa and Apis dorsata worker bees

Observations were conducted in Nepal, on A. laboriosa nests in the Himalayas, and A. dorsata in Rampur, Chitwan. At low temperatures, A. laboriosa worker bees of the whole nest curtain repeatedly raised the abdomen up and down with its tip at the peak up to 30–40°. Frequency of those movements was correlated with ambient temperature. With the increase in temperature, from 10 °C to 17 °C, the percentage of workers performing the temperature correlated dorso-ventral abdomen flipping (AF) dropped significantly from 51.4% to 7.5%. The duration of particular AF decreased from 0.62 s at 10 °C to 0.27 s at 17 °C. The workers repeated successive AF every 1.75 s at 10 °C and every 6.00 s at 17 °C. A. dorsata performed similar movements. However, the duration of single AF was shorter in A. dorsata than in A. laboriosa, and A. dorsata repeated those movements more frequently than A. laboriosa

Apis dorsata drone flights, collection of semen from everted endophalli and instrumental insemination of queens

We observed drone flights of 16 colonies of Apis dorsata in Chitwan, Nepal. At the end of February drone flights occurred between 18:15 and 18:35 h. By April, as day length increased, drones flew gradually later. Within 2 months the start of drone flights was delayed by 42 min. High correlation ($r = 0.99$) was found between the sunset time and the start of drone flights. After the thorax or abdomen of drones were squeezed, seven stages of endophallus eversion occurred. Semen appeared as a small drop at the ventral side of completely everted cervix. We collected 8 mm$^3$ of semen from 41 drones. Thus, one drone produced on average 0.2 mm$^3$ of semen. Three Apis mellifera queens were inseminated with 2-3 mm$^3$ of A. dorsata semen. All queens started to lay eggs. Larvae hatched from 3 were found. We speculate that embryos in rest of the eggs did not develop due to genetic incompatibility

The reasons for the different nest shapes of Megapis bees

Over a 37-year period, we observed 1011 active bee nests and abandoned combs of Apis dorsata and Apis laboriosa in Nepal, India, the Philippines, and Bhutan. This article focuses on the reasons for the different shapes of the nests. We discovered that differing ambient conditions were the reasons for the following three shapes of symmetrical nests: vertical semi-ellipse, semicircle, and the horizontal semi-ellipse. We noted that asymmetrical nests were constructed when there was lack of space to extend the comb equally in both external directions. An asymmetrical nest also appeared when remnants of a previous comb remained on one edge of the nest. Convex nests were constructed to avoid excess sun exposure. Concave nests appeared as a result of low temperatures during the night and part of the day (Nepal). An L-shape nest was constructed when there was lack of space available to extend the nest in a straight direction. The shape of the nests also determines the way the combs fall