The influence of temperature on cuticular color of honeybee (Apis mellifera L) queens

Abstract

Temperatures were monitored around emergency queen cells in queenless honeybee hives to determine the effect of temperature on queen color. Concurrently, sister queens of those reared in the queenless colony were placed in incubators set at 31.1, 32.8, or 34.4 °C for the postcapping interval. Queens from the 34.4 °C incubator were significantly lighter in color than those in the 31.1 °C in all but one trial. Queens that developed in the colony were not significantly different in color rank from those that emerged in the 34.4 °C incubators in any trial, and from the 32.8 or 31.1 °C incubators in most trials. The median color ranks of queens emerging in the colony did not differ throughout the year.