An estimate of the heritability of honeybee pupal weight

Abstract

The weight of the honeybee worker pupae is an economically important trait, because honey production and pupal weight are significantly correlated. The heritability of honeybee worker pupal weight was estimated from the variance components of half-Sib families. Worker pupal weight was measured for 231 free-mated queens that were the daughters of 30 queens. Pupal weight heritability was estimated from this nested model to be 0.645 ± 0.065. This indicates that selection for increased pupal weight is possible and depending on the genetic correiation, there may be a correlated response in honey production.