The Kinship Theory of Genomic Imprinting (KTGI) posits that, in species where females mate with multiple males, there is selection for a male to enhance the reproductive success of his offspring at the expense of other males and his mating partner. Reciprocal crosses between honey bee subspecies show parent‐of‐origin effects for reproductive traits, suggesting that males modify the expression of genes related to female functio...

Reproductive isolation between closely related species is often incomplete. The Western honeybee, A pis mellifera , and the E astern hive bee, A pis cerana , have been allopatric for millions of years, but are nonetheless similar in morphology and behaviour. During the last century, the two species were brought into contact anthropogenically, providing potential opportunities for interspecific matings. Hybrids between A. melli...

Kin selection theory predicts that honeybee ( A pis mellifera ) workers should largely refrain from producing their own offspring, as the workers collectively have higher inclusive fitness if they rear the sons of their mother, the queen. Studies that have quantified levels of ovary activation and reproduction among workers have largely supported this prediction. We sampled pre‐emergent male pupae and adult workers from seven...

During reproductive swarming, some workers of the Cape honey bee, Apis mellifera capensis , lay eggs in queen cells, many of which are reared to maturity. However, it is unknown if workers are able to lay in queen cells immediately after queen loss during an episode of emergency queen rearing. In this study we experimentally de‐queened colonies and determined the maternity of larvae and pupae that were reared as queens. This a...

How individuals deal with multiple conflicting demands is an important aspect of foraging ecology, yet work on foraging behavior has typically neglected neurologically simple organisms. Here we examine the impact of an abiotic risk (light) and energetic status on the foraging decisions of a protist, the slime mold Physarum polycephalum . We examined patch choice in a “non‐risky” environment by presenting starved and non‐starve...

Reproduction by workers is rare in honey bee colonies that have an active queen. By not producing their own offspring and preventing other workers from producing theirs, workers are thought to increase their inclusive fitness due to their higher average relatedness towards queen‐produced male offspring compared with worker‐produced male offspring. But there is one exception. Workers of the Cape honey bee, Apis mellifera capens...