Absence of Nepotism in Waggle Communication of Honeybees (Apis mellifera)

Abstract

The polyandrous mating behavior of the honeybee queen increases the genetic variability among her worker offspring and the workers of particular subfamilies tend to have a genetic predisposition for tasks preference. In this study, we intended to understand whether there is nepotism in dance communication of honeybees during natural conditions. Microsatellite DNA analyses revealed a total of fourteen and twelve subfamilies in two colonies. The subfamily composition of the dancer and the followers did not deviate from random. The majority of the subfamilies did not show kin recognition in dance-recruit communication in honeybee colonies, but some subfamilies showed significant nepotism for workers to follow their super-sister dancer. Because it seems unlikely that honeybee would change the tendency to follow dancers due to the degree of relatedness, we conclude that honeybees randomly follow a dancer in order to e benefit colony gain and development.