Allen:

> This is the interesting and very significant point.
> Apparently the concept of hygienic behaviour is expanding and
> assimilating an increasing range of behaviours.

D'accord.

I only read the ARS report on Harbo's finding, but what caught my
attention the most was the way the cell is usually cleaned - by
eating the parasitized pupa.

It is not what I would expected from a "hygienic" behaviour. AFAIK,
when dead brood are found, hygienic bees usually take them out, as
quickly and far from the hive as possible. And that's surely a good
way to prevent new infections. But would eating the (parasitized,
possibly diseased) brood be as good to improve the colony's health?
It doesn't seem so.

It seems to me, at first and mostly unqualified glance, that we are
not looking at the same kind of stimulus when we watch the
"traditional" HYG and the this "new" specialized HYG (SMR), although
the effects might well be the same.

I wonder if SMR isn't just some kind of canibalism, triggered by some
special scent dispersed by the pupa or the varroa brood, that makes
the pupa "tasty", much like diploid drones. And, if in the next
chapter, we won't see that, actually, HYG has nothing to do with SMR,
besides their sanitization effects.

João Campos












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