Hymenopteran warfare - Comparing defensive strategies of honey bee lineages against ant invaders

Monday, November 14, 2022

8:36 AM – 8:48 AM PT

Location: Vancouver Convention Centre, Meeting Room 224

Presenting Author(s)

JW

Jackson Wingert

Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas

Co-Author(s)

CR

Caleb Rodriguez

Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas
Juliana Rangel

Associate Professor of Apiculture
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas
Alexandria N. Payne

University of Illinois
Champaign, Illinois
Jordan Twombly Ellis

PhD student
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas

Invasive and native species of ants are known to be regular pests of managed honeybee (Apis mellifera) colonies across Texas (Payne et al. 2020). While studies have been conducted regarding the interactions between managed honeybees of European maternal descent and pest ant species, none have mentioned or studied interactions between ants and the more aggressive Africanized honey bee. With invasive ant species such as Solenopsis invicta, spreading northward throughout the Southern U.S., honeybees are forced to share environments with tropical ant species more and more. Similarly, the tropical Africanized bees have spread northward and overtaken much of the Southern U.S. and are more defensive toward predators (Collins et al, 1982). This research project intends to compare the defensive strategies of European honey bees and Africanized honey bees against both native and invasive ant species commonly found in Texas apiaries.