Invaders can conquer Africanized bees.Cape honeybees can infiltrate and take over or destroy the colonies of other honeybees, even dreaded Africanized bees. The remarkable takeover artists, when they're supposedly helpless larvae Larvae, in Roman religion Larvae: see lemures. , somehow swindle swindle v. to cheat through trick, device, false statements or other fraudulent methods with the intent to acquire money or property from another to which the swindler is not entitled. Swindling is a crime as one form of theft. (See: fraud, theft) extra food from nursemaids of other species. In the April 13 NATURE, Madeleine Beekman, now at the University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield is a research university, located in Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. Reputation Sheffield was the Sunday Times University of the Year in 2001 and has consistently appeared as their top 20 institutions. in England, and her colleagues at Wageningen Agricultural University in the Netherlands give the first detailed account of Cape conquests in experimental hives hives (urticaria), rash consisting of blotches or localized swellings (wheals) of the skin, caused by an allergic reaction (see allergy). The swelling is caused by distention of the skin capillaries and escape of serum and white cells into the skin and tissues. of European bees. Unlike workers of other bee races, Cape workers can lay eggs that grow into females. The workers slip past lax security to deposit eggs, and the Cape presence seems to trigger the natives to kill their queen. With pampering, the Cape eggs become queenlike and produce bees that refuse to forage. The colony can then dwindle away or the Cape bees can raise a new queen bee of their own to complete their conquest. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion