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Date: | Sun, 12 Aug 2012 08:17:31 -0400 |
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An important element of worker behaviour, effectuating confinement, appeared to be
tha sealing of cuts made by the enclosed queens in their cell caps. Incisions in queen
cells were closed at the same rate before and after a 24h period of transmission of
tooting, so sealing is not influenced by the presence of tooting.
It is argued that separately tooting and sealing by workers cannot cause a long
term delay of emergence of queens. Their combined presence is essential: tooting
inhibits the activity of queens sufficiently to enable the workers to obstruct their
emergence for days.
In colonies I occasionally observed cells with holes of several mm wide,
from which queens did not attempt to emerge. JEAN-PROST (1958) observed
that queens of several days old remained in their ceils, although the caps
had already been removed. These observations suggest that emergence in
older queens is prevented not only by an immediate inhibition of activity,
but also by long term motivational changes, possibly as a result of exposure
to tooting.
No indications were obtained that emergence of a queen was delayed
by queen pheromones, either from the free queen, or from other enclosed
queens.
After a while their tendency to
emerge probably diminishes, possibly as a result of a) the confinement,
b) feeding by workers through the cuts and/or c) continuous exposure to
tooting. This leads to a stable situation until the colony is induced
to swarm by the presence of tooting, usually with the free queen.
Insectes Sociaux, Paris
1987, Volume 34, n 3, pp. 181-193
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