Queen Developmental Time as a Factor in the Africanization of European Honey Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Populations

The development times of daughter queens from African and European matrilines mated to both African and European drones were recorded. Regardless of the matriline, African patriline queens completed their development and emerged 8–12 h before those with European paternity. A probability distribution function derived from the emergence time data indicated that because of differences in development times between patrilines, the probability that an African patriline queen will emerge 1st can be 2–3 times greater than the proportion of the African patrilines in the colony population. Because the 1st queen to emerge has the best chance of becoming the colony's new queen, differences in queen development times between Africanand European patrilines might be a factor contributing to the asymmetrical gene flow between African and European honey bee, Apis mellifera L., populations, and the eventual loss of European nuclear markers and behavioral attributes in European honey bee populations where African bees have migrated.