Corbicular size in workers from honeybee lines selected for high or low pollen hoarding
Author(s)
Charles P. Milne, Jr., Richard L. Hellmich, And Karen J. Pries
Abstract
Measurements were made of corbicular areas (of a total of 1025 corbiculae) in 2 lines of honeybees (Apis mellifera) selected for high and low pollen hoarding respectively. The sample from each line comprised about 30 newly emerged workers from each of 9 queens representing 3 sublines. Analyses of variance revealed highly significant differences among the 18 queens (P « 0.0001) and between the lines (P « 0.0001). Mean corbicular area for the high pollen-hoarding line (1.909 ± 0.004 mm2) was greater than for the low hoarding line (1.874 ± 0.003 mm2), Of the 9 queens whose worker progeny had the largest corbiculae, 7 belonged to the high pollen-hoarding line. A Mann-Whitney U-test of rank indicated that the distribution of the queens for the 2 lines differed significantly (P < 0.05). Assuming the difference to be genetic, as indicated from a previous heritability estimate, unintentional selection for worker corbicular area must have been performed during selection for divergent pollen-hoarding ability in the colony.
Keywords
Corbicular size, honeybee workers, high pollen hoarding, low pollen hoarding,
