This shows that the anarchistic behaviour is not an epiphenomenon of queenlessness. We initially thought that anarchistic behaviour might have resulted from selection for rapid ovary development by workers following queen loss. Our 1996 observations show that the situation is more complex. Observation hives studies have shown that anarchist workers do not form courts as do queens or queenless workers, nor are they attacked by non-laying workers. Therefore their mandibular pheromonal bouquet does not appear to be queen-like.
Anarchistic workers undergo a normal but highly precocious behavioural ontogeny.
We are very excited about this project, and is well funded for the next three years. Asymmetrical hybridisation of Africanized and European honey bees in the neo-tropics African bees were introduced to Brazil in 1956. They then spread north to the US displacing docile European bees. This suggests either an asymmetrical hybridisation event on a massive scale, or that mitochondrial genomes are not selectively neutral. By utilising our historical collections, and new ones, we shall assess the level and direction of hybridisation events over time.