Fiona Nelima Mumoki

University of Pretoria | UP · Department of Zoology and Entomology

SIGNIFICANCE: • The laying workers of the Cape honey bee continue to negatively affect the South African beekeeping industry, with more losses suffered in the northern regions of the country • The reproductive parasites enter susceptible host colonies, activate their ovaries, and lay diploid eggs, leading to colony dwindling and collapse. • Diploid...

Conferences are a pivotal part of the scientific enterprise, but large in-person meetings have several disadvantages. As the pandemic experience has shown, online meetings are a viable alternative. Accelerating efforts to improve conferences in virtual formats can lead to a more equitable and sustainable conference culture.

Cohesion in social insect colonies is maintained by use of chemical signals produced by the queen, workers, and brood. In honey bees in particular, signals from the queen and brood are crucial for the regulation of reproductive division of labor, ensuring that the only reproductive female individual in the colony is the queen, whereas the workers r...

Social insect societies are characterized by a high level of organization exemplified by strict division of reproductive labor and worker division of labor based on age polyethism. This order is mediated through the use of a remarkably complex array of pheromonal signals produced by all members of the colony and regulated by social contexts. In thi...

Social insects are characterized by the division of labor. Queens usually dominate reproduction, whereas workers fulfill non-reproductive age-dependent tasks to maintain the colony. Although workers are typically sterile, they can activate their ovaries to produce their own offspring. In the extreme, worker reproduction can turn into social parasit...

Scientific conferences provide valuable opportunities for researchers across career stages and disciplines to present their latest work and to network with their peers. The advent of the internet has opened new possibilities for interaction, collaboration and networking, yet the uptake of tools enabling remote participation at scientific meetings h...

Colony losses due to social parasitism in the form of reproductive workers of the Apis mellifera capensis clones results from the production of queen-like pheromonal signals coupled with ovarian activation in these socially parasitic honey bees. While the behavioral attributes of these social parasites have been described, their genetic attributes...

The evolution of altruism in complex insect societies is arguably one of the major transitions in evolution and inclusive fitness theory plausibly explains why this is an evolutionary stable strategy. Yet, workers of the South African Cape honey bee (Apis mellifera capensis) can reverse to selfish behaviour by becoming social parasites and partheno...

Social cohesion in social insect colonies can be achieved through the use of chemical signals whose production is caste-specific and regulated by social contexts. In honey bees, queen mandibular gland pheromones (QMP) maintain reproductive dominance by inhibiting ovary activation and production of queen-like mandibular gland signals in workers. We...

Social insects are characterized by the division of labor. Queens usually dominate reproduction, whereas workers fulfill non-reproductive age-dependent tasks to maintain the colony. Although workers are typically sterile, they can activate their ovaries to produce their own offspring. In the extreme, worker reproduction can turn into social parasit...

There has been a long-standing interest in developing approaches to maximize honey production by Kenyan beekeepers. Since honey bees in Kenya are passively managed, the main decision beekeepers make is which hive type to use: traditional Log hives, Langstroth hives, and Kenyan top-bar hives. We found Langstroth hives to be the most attractive to mi...

With the development of inexpensive, high-throughput sequencing technologies, it has become feasible to examine questions related to population genetics and molecular evolution of non-model species in their ecological contexts on a genome-wide scale. Here, we employed a newly developed suite of integrated, web-based programs to examine population d...

Current trends in global honeybee population changes have been linked to drastic declines in honeybee populations caused by complex interactions between pathogens, arthropod pests such as Varroa, pesticides, honeybee stress and habitat loss. Although substantial information exists for this sudden decline in honeybee populations in Europe and North...

In East Africa, honey bees (Apis mellifera) provide critical pollination services and income for small-holder farmers and rural families. While honey bee populations in North America and Europe are in decline, little is known about the status of honey bee populations in Africa. We initiated a nationwide survey encompassing 24 locations across Kenya...

Summary of locations surveyed between February 2010 and May 2011

Several arthropod pests including the hive beetles Aethina tumida and Oplostomus haroldi and the ectoparasite Varroa destructor have recently been identified as associated with honey bee colonies in Kenya. Here, we report the first documentation of Oplostomus fuligineus in Kenya, a related scarab of O. haroldi, and distribution, diversity and patte...