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RP2E INRA Université de Lorraine

Chemical reproductive traits of diploid Bombus terrestris males: Consequences on bumblebee conservation

Insect Science, 24 (4), pp. 623-630.

Lecocq, T., Gérard, M., Maebe, K., Brasero, N., Dehon, L., Smagghe, G., Valterová, I., De Meulemeester, T., Rasmont, P., Michez, D.

2017

The current bumblebee decline leads to inbreeding in populations that fosters a loss of allelic diversity and diploid male production. As diploid males are viable and their offspring are sterile, bumblebee populations can quickly fall in a vortex of extinction. In this paper, we investigate for the first time a potential pre-mating mechanism through a major chemical reproductive trait (male cephalic labial gland secretions) that could prevent monandrous virgin queens from mating with diploid males. We focus our study on the cephalic labial gland secretions of diploid and haploid males of Bombus terrestris (L.). Contrary to initial expectations, our results do not show any significant differentiation of cephalic labial gland secretions between diploid and haploid specimens. Queens seem therefore to be unable to avoid mating with diploid males based on their compositions of cephalic labial gland secretions. This suggests that the vortex of extinction of diploid males could not be stopped through pre-mating avoidance based on the cephalic labial gland secretions but other mechanisms could avoid mating between diploid males and queens. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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