Conflict and Cooperation in Honey Bees: Queen Piping and Afterswarming

群居昆虫群体所表现出的高度协调性， 经济和理论利益：社会事件， 蜂群是蜜蜂作为传粉者的有用性的基础， 蜂蜜生产商，以及我们成功管理他们的能力。 在 与此同时，这种协调提出了一个特殊的难题， 进化论，因为殖民地内部的冲突是预期在 一些情况。 个体之间的遗传差异 殖民地意味着任何特定的划分殖民地的方式 资源之间的生殖将产生不同的遗传 不同个体的收益，导致冲突 他们之间的利益。 本研究调查了蜜蜂的蜂群生产 殖民地，特别注意管道行为 蜂王，一种长期观察到的现象， 解释道 这项研究验证了一个假设，即工蜂， 操纵可用的选项，重定向的利益， 新饲养的蜂王与工蜂的蜂王排成一列 利益 这就把利益冲突的局面变成了 不同的个体变成一个共同的，虽然较小， 效益 这项研究测试了皇后管道的作用， 沟通的因素，直接这种调整， 利益 这项研究将有助于社会的一般理论 通过测试个体水平上的选择如何 导致群体层面的特征，以及如何在群体层面上 高度合作行为的进化可能是交叉的。 它将 增加我们对蜜蜂繁殖行为了解， 这是蜜蜂遗传管理的基础。

The high level of coordination shown by social insect colonies is of both economic and theoretical interest: The social events in honey bee colonies underlie bees' usefulness as pollinators and honey producers, and our ability to manage them successfully. At the same time, this coordination presents a special puzzle to evolutionary theory, since intra-colony conflict is expected in some circumstances. Genetic differences between individuals in colonies mean that any particular way of dividing the colony's resources among the reproductives will produce different genetic payoffs for different individuals, leading to conflicting interests between them. This study examines the production of swarms by honey bee colonies, with particular attention to the piping behavior of queen bees, a phenomenon long observed but never adequately explained. The study tests a hypothesis that worker bees, by manipulating the options available, redirect the interests of newly-reared queen bees into alignment with the workers' own interests. This turns a situation of conflicting benefits to different individuals into one of common, though lesser, benefits. The study tests the role of queen piping as communication of the factors that direct this realignment of interests. The research will contribute to a general theory of social behavior by testing how selection at the level of individuals can lead to traits at the level of groups, and how the barriers to evolution of highly cooperative behavior may be crossed. It will increase our understanding of honey bee reproductive behavior, which forms the basis for genetic management of bees.