title: Social parasitism by workers in queenless and queenright Apis cerana colonies.
abstract: We examined worker reproduction in queenless and queenright Apis cerana colonies to determine if they are parasitized by workers from other nests. The results demonstrate that 2-6% of workers in queenright colonies are from another nest (non-natal), but these workers are not statistically more likely to have activated ovaries than natal workers, and are therefore unlikely to be active parasites. However, in queenless colonies we found a significant difference between the proportion of non-natal (72.7%) and natal (36.3%) workers with activated ovaries. Non-natal workers also had significantly higher reproductive success than natal workers: 1.8% of workers were non-natal, but these laid 5.2% of the eggs and produced 5.5% of the pupae. Unlike A. florea, the proportion of non-natal workers does not increase in queenless nests.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nanork
authors.forename: N C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Chapman
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wongsiri
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Gloag
authors.forename: B P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Oldroyd
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000469:parasitology / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D005260:Female; D006608:Hierarchy, Social; D010053:Ovary / Q000502:physiology; D012098:Reproduction / Q000502:physiology; D012919:Social Behavior