Drifting of workers in nest aggregations of the giant honeybee Apis dorsata

Abstract

The extent of worker drifting between nests in aggregations of colonies of the giant Asian honeybee Apis dorsata was studied using DNA microsatellites. Four aggregations with three, six, seven and eight colonies were sampled. 1537 workers were genotyped using four loci. Maternity testing was used to separate drifted and natal workers, and to assign drifted individuals to their actual maternal colony. The proportion of drifted workers ranged from 0 to 6.25% with an average of 1.27% (sd = 0.245). No significant differences in rates of drifting were found between the four aggregations. There was also no correlation between the direction of the drift and the position of the nests relative to each other. These results show that in A. dorsata, a bee species that frequently nests in dense aggregations, the extent of forager drifting between colonies can be very low.