MONOANDRY AND POLYANDRY IN BUMBLE BEES (HYMENOPTERA - BOMBINAE) AS EVIDENCED BY HIGHLY VARIABLE MICROSATELLITES

Highly variable microsatellites enabled a precise assessment of the nu mber of queen matings in the colonies of five bumble bee species. Fift een of the sixteen microsatellites initially cloned from B. terrestris had flanking regions similar enough to allow PCR amplification on the other Bombus species analysed. The microsatellites selected far intra colony study (four per species) were characterized by a high heterozyg osity (0.58-0.93) and a large number of alleles (3-18) in the local po pulations from which the colonies originated. A single male appeared t o have inseminated the queens in the colonies of four species, B. terr estris, B. lucorum, B. lapidarius and B. pratorum, which belong to thr ee subgenera, whereas two of the three analysed colonies of B. hypnoru m were polyandrous (minimum number of two and four patrilines, respect ively).