How the social parasitic bumblebee Bombus bohemicus sneaks into power of reproduction

@article{Kreuter2011HowTS,
  title={How the social parasitic bumblebee Bombus bohemicus sneaks into power of reproduction},
  author={Kirsten Kreuter and E Wayne Bunk and Anna L{\"u}ckemeyer and Robert Twele and Wittko Francke and Manfred Ayasse},
  journal={Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology},
  year={2011},
  volume={66},
  pages={475-486}
}
Social parasitism is widespread in many groups of social living hymenopteran species and has also evolved in the genus Bombus. Cuckoo bumblebees (subgenus Psithyrus) are obligate brood parasites in nests of other bumblebee species. After nest usurpation and the killing of the host queen, the parasite female has to control worker reproduction in order to accomplish and maintain reproductive dominance and to ensure her reproductive success. The aim of our study was to examine whether the… 
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Nest wax triggers worker reproduction in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris
TLDR
It is suggested that wax scent enables workers to time their reproduction by providing essential information concerning the social condition of the colony by changing the patterns and amounts of cuticular lipids change considerably during colony development.
Ecology and Evolution of Cuckoo Bumble Bees
Abstract Most social insect lineages contain socially parasitic cheater species that, rather than produce their own workers, infiltrate the nests of closely related social species and force the hosts…
A method for year-round rearing of cuckoo bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Bombus subgenus Psithyrus)
TLDR
A simple method for rearing cuckoo bumblebees (Bombus subgenus Psithyrus) in the laboratory enables a year-round and mass breeding of Psith Cyrus species to facilitate studies of these rare species.
Low Host Specialization in the Cuckoo Wasp, Parnopes grandior, Weakens Chemical Mimicry but Does Not Lead to Local Adaption
TLDR
It is concluded that host range may indeed play a role in shaping the level of chemical mimicry in cuckoo wasps and behavioural assays suggesting that such weak mimicry is sufficient to reduce host aggression, even in absence of an insignificance strategy, which was not detected.
A scent shield to survive: identification of the repellent compounds secreted by the male offspring of the cuckoo bumblebee Bombus vestalis
TLDR
It is hypothesize that tetradecyl acetate has a key function in the repellent effect of the secretions of B. vestalis male offspring towards B. terrestris host workers, and shows a repelling effect on starved host workers in a feeding bioassay.
Cuckoo male bumblebees perform slower and longer flower visits than free-living male and worker bumblebees
TLDR
Investigating the flower-visiting behaviour of 350 individual bumblebees in a wild population of the entomophilous plant Gentiana lutea provides the first empirical evidence of different flower- Visiting behaviours between cuckoo and free-living bumblebee.
Chemical ecology of bumble bees.
TLDR
The development of new and more sensitive analytical tools and improvements in sociogenetic methods significantly enhanced knowledge about chemical compounds that mediate the regulation of reproduction in the social phase of colony development, about the interactions between host bumble bees and their social parasites, about pheromones involved in mating behavior, as well as about the importance of signals, cues and context-dependent learning in foraging behavior.
Reproductive Dominance Strategies in Insect Social Parasites
TLDR
This review compares socially parasitic insect lineages to find general trends and build a hypothetical framework for the means by which social parasites achieve reproductive dominance, and highlights how host social organization and social parasite life history traits may impact the way they achieve reproductive supremacy.
Chemical Variation among Castes, Female Life Stages and Populations of the Facultative Eusocial Sweat Bee Halictus rubicundus (Hymenoptera: Halictidae)
TLDR
This study compared the chemical profiles of social and solitary populations from both continents and tested whether (i) population or social level affect chemical dissimilarity and (ii) caste-specific patterns reflect a conserved queen signal, finding common compounds overproduced in queens compared to workers in both populations, indicating a potential conservedQueen signal.
Diversification Pattern of the Widespread Holarctic Cuckoo Bumble Bee, Bombus flavidus (Hymenoptera: Apidae): The East Side Story
TLDR
This work addressed the species status of the socially parasitic bumble bee, Bombus flavidus Eversmann, using an integrative taxonomic approach, combining cytochrome oxidase I and nuclear sequencing, wing morphometrics, and secretions used for mate attraction, and explored patterns of color polymorphism that have previously confounded taxonomy in this lineage.
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