EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF REPRODUCTIVE INTERSPECIES ISOLATION OF APIS MELLIFERA L. AND APIS CERANA FABR

Abstract

Virgin cerana queens, placed for mating in different locations in central Europe for several years, were unable to produce hybrid offspring. Mating behaviour being practically identical in both species, ttiellil!ra drones interfered in the mating process of cerana queens. In one case it was observed that interspecific copula resulted in severe injury to the cera lla queen. After instrumental insemination of both melli/era and cerana queens with heterospecific semen, normal fertilization and cleavage of the eggs were observed. During the blastula stage, however, development stopped and finally ended in a complete breakdown. These observations are discussed from the point of view of the evolution of the two aforementioned species of Apis