6.26 Grooming Flashcards
What are the two types of grooming?
• Autogrooming – workers grooming themselves
• Allogrooming – workers grooming each other
What age of worker will be a groomer?
Any age - it is often just the nearest bee.
What is important about queens grooming themselves?
They spread QMP across their body to ensure the workers can access her pheremones
Describe drone grooming?
A drone grooms himself to ensure he is flight worthy/ He will clean his anteanne before mating flights to ensure his sense organs are clear.
What does a worker do when she needs grooming?
The dirty worker will stamp her legs rapidly and swing her body from side to side. At the same time, she raises and lowers her body. She stops when she feels the mandibles of the cleaner bee and will spread her wings and lean to one side to accommodate the cleaner.
Define hygienic behaviour in regard to grooming?
The detection and removal of disease and infected brood from their cells by workers.
What is hygienic behaviour useful in combatting?
It is a pimrary mechanisim for resistance towards AFB, chalkbrood, waax moth and now varroa
What are the 3 main steps for varroa hygience behaviour?
Mite detection –> creation of a hole –> recapping the cell/removing the contents/cannabilisim
How are varroa mites detected in cells?
Based on odour. It is believed that creating the hole may allow this to be more easily detected
Describe why sensitivty of varroa odours is important?
Different bees in the colony have different sensitivty to the signals. This means there are different groups such as detectors, removers or recappers
Why do the bees need to groom?
There is lots of debris falling in the hive, they may be covered in pollen, they may have varroa mites on them.
