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Impact of artificial photoperiodism on the colony development of the bumblebee Bombus terrestris
Author(s) -
AMIN Md Ruhul,
SUH Sang Jae,
KWON Yong Jung
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
entomological science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.536
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1479-8298
pISSN - 1343-8786
DOI - 10.1111/j.1479-8298.2007.00233.x
Subject(s) - bumblebee , photoperiodism , biology , bombus terrestris , zoology , queen (butterfly) , botany , ecology , pollination , pollinator , hymenoptera , pollen
This study investigated the effect of the photoperiodic regimes 0 h light : 24 h dark (LD 0:24), LD 8:16, LD 16:8 and LD 24:0 at 28°C and 50% Relative Humidity (RH) on the colony development of hibernated (2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0 months) bumblebee queens. The queens which had hibernated for 3.0 months and which were reared in a LD 8:16 photoperiod showed the highest rate of colony initiation (88.2%), colony foundation (67.6%) and progeny queen production (38.2%). The photoperiod LD 8:16 also produced the shortest period of colony initiation and colony foundation. The highest number of sexual males (171.2 ± 12.2) and queens (91.2 ± 9.9) were produced in the colonies when 3.5 and 3.0 month hibernated queens were kept in an LD 8:16 photoperiod. The results show that light regime and hibernation duration affect colony characteristics of Bombus terrestris .