Journal of Insect Behavior (2013) 26, 796-803

Christian W.W. Pirk and Peter Neumann (2013)
Small hive beetles are facultative predators of adult honey bees
Journal of Insect Behavior 26 (6), 796-803
Abstract: Foraging animals can choose to act as predators or not depending on the level of defensiveness of the potential prey. This requires prior evaluation of prey defensiveness, which can be variable, e.g. young insects are usually less able to defend themselves. Here we show that small hive beetles, Aethina tumida, which are scavengers and parasites of honey bee, Apis mellifera, colonies, are facultative predators of young adult host workers. Adult female beetles mounted and attacked young workers more often than their older nestmates, indicating that the beetle is assessing the defensiveness of the host and is adjusting its behaviour accordingly. Since adult female beetles need proteins to activate their ovaries, predation on defenceless young alive host workers offers another rewarding food source, which can obviously not be exploited by beetle larvae. In conclusion, adult small hive beetles seem to be able to assess the trade-off between safety and food reward.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Peter Neumann, Christian Pirk

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
general biology - morphology - evolution

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Aethina tumida