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Reproductive studies of a neotropical bumblebee, Bombus atratus (Hymenoptera, Apidae)

Carlos A. Garofalo^I; Ronaldo Zucchi^I; Gerson Muccillo^II

^IDepartamento de Biologia, and ^IIDepartamento de Geologia, Física e Matemática, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, 14049 Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brasil. Send correspondence to C.A.G.

ABSTRACT

The paper presents some reproductive studies of a neotropical bumblebee, Bombus atratus. All the males and queens utilized were collected from nests maintained in the laboratory. Most males left the nest when they were four days old. The number of spermatozoa produced by males increased with body size. Most matings occurred in the morning and the behavior patterns during mating are described. The amount of sperm received by a queen after one copulation was proportional to the amount of semen found in the male with which she copulated. The males were able to copulate repeatedly and discharged less spermatozoa as the matings occurred. The duration of mating, in general, increased with the number of matings. The average quantity of sperm in the spermathecae of queens increased with the number of matings. However, in most cases the number of matings cannot be deduced from the number of sperms since the individual values obtained for queens copulating twice or three times were similar to those for queens copulating only once.

Keywords: reproductive studies; bumblebee; Bombus atratus .

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