Development Traits of Bombus terrestris Colonies Founded by Queens Mated with Males Produced from Haploid Eggs of Queens and Reproductive Workers

In contrast to honeybees, bombus. terrestris workers are also capable of egg laying toward the end of the colony life even if in the presence of the queen. males are produced from these unfertilized haploid eggs laid by both queens and workers. in a colony, males which produced from queen and reproductive worker eggs are not different morphologically. in mass rearing process under controlled conditions, all males which produced in colonies are collected and mated with young queens. this experiment was carried out to compare the development traits of colonies founded by queens mated with these two male groups. to produce two different male groups, old workers groups and virgin queens groups were formed and males were produced by these groups. young b. terrestris queens produced by standard colonies were mated with males in two groups. after the hibernation period, queens were allowed to found colonies and some colony development characteristics were determined. results showed that no significant differences in the all colony development characteristics except colony foundation ratio (p<0.05) were determined between colonies founded by queens mated with males produced by queens and reproductive workers.