Bald headed pupa
>This sometimes comes up during inspections and folks 
wonder what it is about. What is interesting about the 
above description is that it was published in 1911, one 
hundred years ago, by E F Phillips.>

Phillips was observing hygienic behavior.

>I am interested in this idea of re-capping.
>So, if workers uncap cells because they know there is varroa in them, what 
makes them re-cap those cells?

Hello Peter,

A great question!
I have the answer to this question. 
It is probably because of task partitioning. 

First, I would like to relate that,,,
I agree with the responder that stated that they are uncapping because 
of other reasons, -perhaps diseased brood, and not specifically for the 
varroa. 
(hygienic behavior)

The detecting, uncapping, chewing down and removal of diseased brood is 
performed by hygienic bees and theories abound that some of these tasks 
may divided into subtasks, -some bees removing caps and perhaps others 
the task of removing diseased brood etc.

Colonies that are very hygienic will uncap and remove diseased brood rapidly.
I have seen this occur many times.  It also appears that in some of the lesser 
hygienic colonies, the task takes much longer, and sometimes cells are recapped 
or simply remain open, as if the hygienic mechanism was 'turned off'.

We do know that in honeybee colonies, some subcasts may exhibit hygienic 
behavior while others may not exhibit the trait. Since it appears that colonies 
with lesser degree of hygenic behavior tend to recap or give up on removing 
diseased brood, the answer might be found in task partitioning.

In theory, hygienic bees may be performing the subtask of uncapping, and 
non-hygienic subcasts may be coming along and recapping the cells.  This may
give the 'appearance' OR assumption that the bees removed a male 
varroa, and recapped.

Colonies which are very hygienic would have rapidly chewed down the pupa and 
removed it from the hive, and the cell re-utilized.

If someone is observing recapping behavor, this might indicate that
the colony is not a highly hygienic colony.

Best Wishes,
Joe Waggle




 

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