Factors Affecting Survival, Migration of Spermatozoa and Onset of Oviposition in Instrumentally Inseminated Queen Honeybees

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Abstract
Summary Queen honeybees instrumentally inseminated with 8 μl semen during narcotization with one application of 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, or 100% CO2 or low temperature (1–3°C), contained a mean of 2·05, 3·28, 3·39, 3·19, 3·33, 2·53 and 2·76 million sperm, respectively, whereas naturally mated queens had 47middot;96 million. The mean oviposition onset was 117middot;8, 17·6, 15·6, 21·7, 11·4, 28·3 and 19·3 days, respectively, after insemination and 3·4 days after natural mating. With queens inseminated with 8 μl semen, one application of 50, 75, or 100% CO2 gave oviposition after means of 12, 12·3, and 28·3 days, respectively, whereas two applications gave 12·2, 3·7, and 5·8 days. With a single narcosis with 75% CO2 and 8 or 16 μ1 semen, flight experience gave, respectively, oviposition onset 16·3 and 10 days after insemination and 2·02 and 3·33 million sperm in the spermathecae, whereas similar queens without flight experience began oviposition after 12·3 and 5·6 days and had 3·05 and 4·64 million sperm. Naturally mated queens in the same experiment began laying 3·8 days after mating and contained 5·10 million sperm. It is concluded that 75% CO2 would be better than 100% for narcotizing queen honeybees.

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