JP2007006902A - Method for breeding bumblebee - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently breeding colonies of bumblebees in a room so as to be used as a pollinator of agricultural products. <P>SOLUTION: By attending the queen bee of the bumblebee by several worker bees as helpers, the nesting success rate is increased and emergence of the first brood of working bee is promoted. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for breeding bumblebees. More specifically, an object of the present invention is to create pollen-borne colonies in a short time. It is related to a method for improving the nesting rate, shortening the emergence of worker bees, promoting nest development, and breaking the dormancy of new queen bees by attaching worker bees (adults, larvae, moths) as helpers.

  Known insects used for pollen transmission include honey bees, bees, and gibbons. Of these, the honeybee is the only social insect living in a family consisting of one queen bee and a large number of worker bees, including the bumblebees intended by the present invention.

  In the past, bees have been used to pollinate various agricultural crops with the development of the beekeeping industry. However, honeybees cannot be expected to have sufficient pollinating activity in a greenhouse covered with a film that removes ultraviolet rays. In addition, it has been pointed out that there are limitations in use, such as tomatoes that do not produce nectar, and that they cannot be kept in a small enclosed space. Bumblebees that have a different lifestyle from honeybees have solved the problem of pollinating in these horticulture. The use of bumblebees began to become more concrete in 1987 when the Belgian Roland de Jonghe achieved an outstanding effect on pollination of greenhouse bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) that are not distributed in Japan. It begins with admission. Since then, within 4-5 years, the production and sales of this bee has spread to European countries, mainly in the Netherlands, England and France. In Japan, Biobest Corp. and Belgian Atlantic Bumblebee were imported in 1991 for the first time, and in 1992, the same species was imported from Copperto Corp. and the Netherlands and introduced into the Tomato House. Total imports to date are expected to exceed 10,000 groups. In the past, the introduction of European bumblebees to produce tomatoes that were partly produced by hormonal treatment with one person by one by hand, with the result of significantly reducing labor and improving fruit quality through normal pollination. Yes. In terms of production agriculture, the introduction is really effective. However, there are concerns about the competition with 14 Japanese bumblebees that may occur if the alien species escapes to the field and naturalizes, or the impact on Japan's fauna and flora. The source of the present invention lies in the idea that the problem can be avoided by using native bumblebees.

  Regarding the breeding methods that have been developed in Europe, two queen bees are placed in one nest box at the same time in Durum bee (Duchateau. 1991). Three to four queen bees There is a report (van den Eijnde et al., 1991, Non-Patent Document 1) that the nesting start rate increases when a worker bee is attached.

Outline the life history of bumblebees. Bumblebee nesting begins with a queen bee that came out in the spring after the winter. A queen bee builds a nest in an empty nest such as a mouse and lays and raises several fertilized eggs that become worker bees. The first group of working bees raised by one queen bee is called the first brood. These worker bees help the mother's queen bee and take charge of labor such as nest expansion, food gathering, and nest defense, so the queen bee can concentrate on spawning and at this point is exactly the `` queen bee ''. . Therefore, growing the first brood as soon as possible is important for future nest development. The first bee worker bee raises more queen bee children, and the number of worker bees increases rapidly. From the end of August to September, we will raise dozens of new bees and queen bees that will become queen bees in the following year. The new queen bee leaves the nest and mates with the male bee in the other nest and dive into the soil.
J. vanden Eijnde et al., Acta Horticulturae, 1991, 288, 154-158

  Bumble bee nesting in nature begins with just one queen bee. The queen bee secretes wax from the body, creates a small spawning room, and produces several fertilized eggs. From this egg until the worker bee is born, the queen bee must do all the work in one. Therefore, the burden on the queen bee is large and the death rate is high at this time. In addition, it takes a long time from egg laying until the first worker bee becomes an adult. In a room, it is difficult to start nesting with one queen bee. The present inventor attaches a European bee bee queen bee to one Japanese bee queen bee and makes it a social state from the beginning, thereby increasing the nesting success rate, and a large number of worker bees in a short period of time. The purpose of this project was to complete a large-scale indoor breeding method for bumblebees. Next, in the natural world, the new queen bee who enters the wintering after mating is treated in the same way, and the purpose is also to develop a method of keeping colonies in the laboratory throughout the year by omitting dormancy. By applying this method to the growth of Japanese bumblebees, Japanese bumblebees that have no danger of adversely affecting the Japanese ecosystem will be efficiently propagated to contribute to increased production of crops. It is.

The present inventor put a test insect in a breeding box and added several helpers to one queen bee, thereby promoting nesting and breaking the dormancy of the new queen bee. In other words, when the helper is attached to the queen bee, the first brood grows faster, and when the helper is attached to the mating new queen bee, long sleep is stopped and nest building is started immediately. Can secure a nest all year round.
When not only adult worms but also larvae and moths are attached as worker bees, there is an advantage that the effect lasts longer compared to the case where adults are attached because worker bees that serve as helpers emerge one after another. Eggs can also be used, but in that case, it is desirable to use them together with larvae.

  The present invention opens the way to mass growth in the laboratory of Japanese bumblebees, which has been almost impossible until now, and if bumblebees can be produced in a planned manner domestically in response to the increasing demand for bumblebees in the future. It is groundbreaking in terms of tightening.

Example 1 Obtaining queen bees and worker bees We collected the queen bees of Oomaru Bees who have been visiting after wintering in Oshino-mura, Minamitsuru-gun, Yamanashi. Until the start of breeding, the queen bees were placed one by one in a small plastic case and given about 30% sucrose water. The worker bee that was attached to the queen bee as a helper is the giant bumblebee (trade name: Nachpol), prepared by Koppard of the Netherlands and imported by Tomen Corporation.

Example 2 Breeding conditions Queen bees collected in the field were introduced into a breeding box (length 80 × width 150 × height 65 mm). The breeding box is divided into a childcare room and a feeding room by a partition plate having a passage hole. It has a transparent plastic lid with air holes, but the childcare room is designed to be dark. A thin board is laid on the bottom of the childcare room, and when the nest made on it develops, it can be easily transferred to a larger nest box with the board. 30% sucrose was put in a small container and placed on the floor of the feeding room, and fresh pollen collected from a bee colony by a pollen trap was placed in the shape of a ball having a diameter of about 5 mm on the floor of the nursery room (FIG. 1). ). These two types of food were added or replaced depending on the daily situation. The breeding box was placed in a thermostat maintained at about 25 ° C., and the photoperiod conditions were a 12-hour light period and a 12-hour dark period. The breeding conditions of the ward (Fig. 2) in which three queen bees were added as helpers to one queen bee are exactly the same.

Example 3 Nest Development Speed One queen bee placed in a breeding box secreted wax from the abdomen about one week later and started nesting. We created a spawning room with honey cake and laid 6-9 fertilized eggs together. After spawning, the queen bee immediately closed the spawning room with wax, heated to hold it from above, and maintained the temperature of the spawning room at about 32 ° C. After egg hatching, pollen consumption increased gradually, and the queen bee spit up the pollen that was fed and fed it to the larvae. As the larvae grew up to the end, pollen consumption increased rapidly. It took about one month from egg laying until the first worker bee emerged. After the worker bees emerged, the colonies developed rapidly as they shared most of their work. On the other hand, the queen bee given three working bees as a helper helped the queen bee by sharing the work in the colony from the beginning, which not only increased the nesting success rate but also significantly promoted the development of the nest (Fig. 2). In other words, the number of days required for the first worker bee to emerge was shortened, the laying interval of the queen bee was shortened, and the total number of worker bees emerged on the 50th day from the start of egg laying was about twice that when the queen bee was started alone ( Table 1 and FIG. 4).
Table 1. Bumblebee queen bee nesting alone and three helpers
Comparison of early colony development in the warded areas
Number of days since the experiment started Queen bee spawning colony ――――――――――――――――――――――― 50th day of the start number Nest building start Spawning start Of cumulative working bees
Number of emergence Number of emergence ――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――
Queen Bee Nesting District (n = 4)
H-1 5 7 30 (8) 14
H-4 12 14 37 (4) 4
Ward with a queen bee (n = 3)
H-5 9 14 24 (5) 17
H-6 9 12 27 (6) 21
H-7 3 7 27 (7) 28
――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

Example 4 Nesting by a new queen bee We succeeded in mating a new queen bee and a male bee that were grown indoors and emerged from a mature colony, but the new queen bee enters dormancy for several months after mating. It was impossible to nest. The present inventor succeeded in breaking dormancy by attaching working bees to the new queen bees mated (FIG. 5).

Birdhouse used for indoor breeding of bumblebees Bumble bee queen bee (large individual in the center) and 3 bumble bee helpers Differences in colony development between the honey bee nesting with only one queen bee (A) and the queen bee with three bees working as helpers (B) Differences in the cumulative number of emergence of worker bees in the ward (H-1) nesting with only one queen bee (H-1) and the queen bee (3) with three working bees as a helper (H-7) Bee mating new queen bee broke through dormancy by putting on a bee helper

Claims (6)

  A method for raising bumblebees, characterized in that a worker bee selected from a bumblebee and a black bee is attached as a helper to a queen bee of a bumblebee.   A method for raising bumblebees, characterized in that a worker bee selected from a large bee and a black bee is attached as a helper to a queen bee of a black bee.   A method for raising bumblebees, characterized in that a worker bee selected from a bumblebee, a black bee and a bumblebee is attached as a helper to a queen bee of a bumblebee.   The breeding method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein 1 to several tens of bees are attached to each queen bee.   The breeding method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the worker bee is an adult, a larva or a moth.   The breeding method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the queen bee is a mated new queen bee.