Workers in colonies of European honey bees Apis mellifera L. clean their
nestmate's body by allogrooming behavior. This behavior may be initiated by
either grooming dancers or by the allogroomers themselves. The first occurs
less frequently (ca. 17 %) than the later (83 %). By using the inner edge of
mandibles, allogroomers comb the hairy parts around the receiver wing bases,
sites around which are unreachable by the receiver herself, and where adult
females of the tracheal mite Acarapis woodi and the ectoparasite mite A.
dorsalis commonly harbor. There are two groups of allogroomers : the
specialist, which grooms six or more nestmates within one bout of
allogrooming, and the non-specialist, which grooms fewer nestmates. A
specialist that groomed 132 nestmates in one bout was observed in this study.
Although allogrooming may be initiated by the grooming dancer, the
relationship between the two behaviors is negligible. Worker bees perform
allogrooming behavior more as a routine task rather than as a response to the
grooming dance.
Sunlight intensity, and probably temperature, outside the hive influence
allogrooming intensity. The intensity increases during sunny days and
decreases at night. It also decreases when the day is cloudy or rainy. An
intensity of fourteen events per 1000 workers every two minutes was
observed during sunny days, so that all the workers in the colony would be
groomed ca. eight times within 24 hours.
There is very little temporal basis for allogrooming behavior. It is
performed by workers of any age above two days. Any nestmate, regardless
of age, can be groomed. However, it was observed that bees of foraging age
were groomed less frequently. / Graduation date: 1993
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/37201 |
| Date | 06 May 1992 |
| Creators | Kuswadi, Achmad Nasroh |
| Contributors | Burgett, Michael |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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