Gender bending bumblebees

Researchers at the University of Southampton’s School of Biological Sciences have discovered that inbreeding in threatened bumblebee species results in female worker bees changing sex.


Many bumblebee species have become rare in recent years, and their last populations are confined to nature reserves, which effectively act as islands amidst a sea of intensively farmed land. In small, isolated bumblebee populations where there are very few individuals, relatives may mate with each other.

Now the Southampton researchers have discovered that this inbreeding has significant consequences. They have studied a number of species, including the Moss Carder Bee (Bombus muscorum), at various sites across the UK, from the Hebrides in Scotland to Dungeness on the Kent coast.

A bumblebee queen usually produces a large number of worker daughters to help in the nest and with gathering nectar and pollen. But if she mates with a relative, then many of her offspring which are genetically female develop into sterile males instead. This change in sex may ultimately threaten their survival.

‘Since male bumblebees do no work, and have only one purpose – mating – a sterile male is worse than useless. If the queen is producing sterile sons instead of worker daughters, the nest is probably doomed. This means that, even on well-protected nature reserves, the last populations of these rare insects may be driven to extinction,’ explains Dr Dave Goulson, who led the research study.

Media Contact

Sarah Watts alfa

More Information:

http://www.soton.ac.uk

All latest news from the category: Ecology, The Environment and Conservation

This complex theme deals primarily with interactions between organisms and the environmental factors that impact them, but to a greater extent between individual inanimate environmental factors.

innovations-report offers informative reports and articles on topics such as climate protection, landscape conservation, ecological systems, wildlife and nature parks and ecosystem efficiency and balance.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors