Using drones for estimating colony number by microsatellite DNA analyses of haploid males in Apis

Abstract

In social insects the number of colonies rather than the actual number of individuals in the population primarily determines the effective population size. Here we present a method where microsatellite data of haploid males can be used to estimate the number of male producing queens in honeybee populations. A cluster analysis based on the allelic identity by descent (AID) among male genotypes is used to group potential brother males. For each "brother cluster" the corresponding mother queen genotype is determined by Mendelian inference. We show in various simulations that although limited number of screened loci can result in slightly biased estimates, the precision improves considerably with increasing number of loci. Empirical data from microsatellite studies of the Western honeybee Apis mellifera and the giant Asian honeybee Apis dorsata are presented to illustrate the application of the procedure. © INRA/DIB-AGIB/ EDP Sciences, 2005.