> >   d) When a swarm occurred the workers did not divide randomly; they
> >   divided very much according to their drone parents, the swarm
> >   consisting very largely of workers from only three or four drones.
 
> Did the study say anything regarding the ages of the swarming bees?
> Did the swarm consist of all ages of like-father bees?
 
There is a study by Winston and Otis (J Apic Res 17:123-129,1978). The
authors conclude that both newly emerged worker bees and old worker bees
swarm less readily than other worker bees.
 
For the newly emerged bees the same can be concluded from the study by
Getz et al. (Behav Ecol Sociobiol 10: 265-270, 1982; same study as mentioned
in my previous mail). Data from one of their colonies:
 
                  cordovan                     normal
                  swarm     remnant            swarm       remnant
 
unfrayed wings    80 %      20 %               62 %        38 %
 
frayed wings      53 %      47 %               38 %        62 %
 
 
> How do the drones decide whether to  stay or swarm?  There is no "family
allegiance" in their case. Raises all sorts of interesting questions which
probably will never get answered.
 
There is a study by Ratnieks and Miller (Anim Behav 46:803-805, 1993).
Quotation:
.. Theoretical analyses suggest that workers maximize their inclusive
    fitness by dividing in favour of the swarm (...). This is because:
    (1) additional adult workers should increase the survival of the swarm
        more than the established colony (...)
    (2) in the case of the prime swarm. the workers are more related to the
        offspring of the swarm queen (their mother) than the offspring of
        the queen that will inherit the established colony (their sister).
        Empirical data (Martin 1963) show that about two-thirds of the
        workers (*MY NOTE: adult workers*) leave with a swarm.
    (...) Because drones do no work, do not visit flowers, and obtain all
    their food directly or indirectly from the workers, the above argument
    (*MY NOTE: argument 1) is reversed for the division of drones, leading
    to the prediction that drones should preferentially stay with the
    established colony. ...
End of quotation
 
The authors experimental data from 8 prime swarms and 5 after swarms
support this prediction: Regarding all 13 swarms, on average 18 % of a
colony's drones joined the swarm, whereas on average 65 % of the workers
joined the swarm. There was no signifcant difference between prime and
after swarms.
 
 
> DNA footprint for queens can be obtained ...
 
Just a technical note: I know these terms get easily mixed up. What
we are talking about here are DNA fingerprints and genotyping by locus
specific PCR amplifications. DNA fingerprints look a little bit like
bar codes. One stripe represents one DNA fragment of a particular lenght.
DNA footprints are DNA sequence patters with gaps at particular sites
resulting from a protein molecule being affixed to recognition sequences
on the DNA strand. So, whereas DNA fingerprints are used to investigate
genetic relationships, DNA footprints are used to determine the DNA
sequence where interactions with proteins take place.
 
Michael
 
____________________________________________________________________
Michael Haberl
Zoologisches Institut der Uni Muenchen         Tel: ++49 89 5902-444
Luisenstr. 14                                  Fax: ++49 89 5902-450
80333 Muenchen            e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Germany              http://www.ebe-online.de/home/mhaberl/index.htm
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