Abstract

PINILLA-GALLEGO, Mario Simón  and  AGUILAR, Marlene Lucía. Effect of the Breeding Environment on Workers Longevity and Colony Development of Bombus atratus (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Acta biol.Colomb. [online]. 2016, vol.21, n.1, pp.73-79. ISSN 0120-548X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/abc.v21n1.46049.

Bombus atratus is a native species from South America which has been studied for breeding and management for pollination, and methodologies are currently being developed to use it as a commercial pollinator. For this reason, the aim of the study was to compare the worker's longevity and colony development under different environments: open field (grassland), greenhouse, and brood chamber. Two colonies were used in each environment, all workers were labeled and colonies were checked weekly for the number of workers. Results show that worker's longevity in open field (12 ± 4 days) and greenhouse (15 ± 6 days) is significantly less than the worker's longevity in the brood chamber (54 ± 20 days). Colony development in open field and greenhouse regarding number of workers were similar, with fewer workers than the colonies in the brood chamber. The decrease in worker's longevity in open field and greenhouse may be due to the influence of environmental factors related with the location of the colonies, parasitism or predation, foraging, and the resources availability in the area. The workers high mortality during the first weeks can be a limiting factor for the colonies success. Possible methods to increase the colonies adaptation success are discussed.

Keywords : Bumblebees breeding; colony managements; native bees.

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