Absconding Behaviour of the Africanized Honeybee in South America

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Abstract
Absconding behaviour of the Africanized honeybee in French Guiana, South America, is described. Two types of absconding were recognized: disturbance-induced (i.e., predation, manipulation, etc.) and resource-related or seasonal absconding, probably induced by a dearth of resources during the wet season or by overheating during the dry season. In pre-absconding colonies where disturbance was not involved, brood rearing decreased dramatically, with few or no larvae present in colonies about ten days before absconding. Egg-laying continued at a low level until nearly all of the sealed worker brood emerged; colonies absconded within a day of the end of the sealed brood emergence. Patterns of nectar and pollen storage prior to absconding were highly variable. Inspection of colonies immediately after absconding showed that there was little (< 100 cm2) or no eggs, larvae, sealed brood or stored pollen, nectar or honey. Comparison of pre-absconding and persisting colonies prior to the absconding season revealed no characteristics useful for predicting absconding, although the distributions of the last swarming dates before the absconding season were different for the two groups of colonies. Colonies that had swarmed just prior to the absconding season and that had low numbers of workers, particularly young workers, had a relatively high probability (0·45) of absconding during the wet season.

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