EFFECTS OF RELATEDNESS ON QUEEN COMPETITION WITHIN HONEY-BEE COLONIES

The influence of relatedness on the pre-and post-emergent survival of honey bee queens was investigated. Workers did not preferentially rear sisters over non-siblings under conditions of natural queen replaceme nt. After queen emergence, however, there was a significant effect of a queen's relatedness to the workers on her survivorship during fights with rival queens. The mechanism of this bias towards related queens is unknown, and several hypotheses are discussed. The difference in po st-emergent survivability suggests that kin selection may operate duri ng competition among adult queens at this crucial stage of honey bee r eproduction. (C) 1998 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviou r.