ACE Grooming Techniques 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which term describes an insect cleaning another individual of the same species?
- Allogrooming (Correct answer)
- Autogrooming
- Trophallaxis
- Heterogrooming
Correct answer: Allogrooming
Allogrooming (mutual grooming) involves one individual cleaning another of the same species, distinct from autogrooming (self-cleaning).
Question 2: Bee colonies with high-expression hygienic behavior are selected for pest management primarily because they can detect and remove which problem?
- Diseased or mite-infested brood (Correct answer)
- Failed queen cells
- Excess propolis deposits
- Non-worker drones
Correct answer: Diseased or mite-infested brood
Hygienic bees detect and remove diseased, mite-infested, or dead larvae, reducing pathogen and parasite loads within the colony.
Question 3: In the context of fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) bait programs, grooming and trophallaxis together serve to:
- Distribute the bait toxicant from foragers to the queen (Correct answer)
- Accelerate the degradation of bait oils
- Cause workers to reject bait with repellent chemistry
- Trigger alarm pheromone release from foragers
Correct answer: Distribute the bait toxicant from foragers to the queen
Fire ant foragers share bait material through trophallaxis and grooming, passing the slow-acting toxicant to reproductives, eventually eliminating the queen.
Question 4: Which cockroach behavior analogous to allogrooming contributes to gel bait horizontal transfer among colony members?
- Cannibalism and contact feeding on feces and regurgitate (Correct answer)
- Alarm pheromone-triggered aggregation
- Nymph molting in harborage areas
- Ootheca carrying behavior by females
Correct answer: Cannibalism and contact feeding on feces and regurgitate
Cockroaches ingest bait and share it through coprophagy and cannibalism, spreading the active ingredient horizontally within an aggregation.
Question 5: Grooming in honey bees has been observed to remove pesticide dust particles from the body. This poses a risk because:
- Ingested particles can cause sublethal neurological impairment even at low doses (Correct answer)
- It renders contact insecticides entirely ineffective on bees
- Groomed particles accumulate in propolis and contaminate the hive long-term
- Bees transfer particles to flowers, contaminating pollen sources
Correct answer: Ingested particles can cause sublethal neurological impairment even at low doses
Sublethal ingestion of neurotoxic pesticide dust during grooming can impair navigation and foraging in bees without causing immediate death.
Question 6: Which structural feature of cockroach antennae makes them particularly important for autogrooming and why?
- Dense sensory setae that accumulate debris and chemical residues requiring frequent cleaning (Correct answer)
- A flexible scape joint that allows the antenna to reach the labrum
- A wax layer that must be renewed by oral secretions
- Stridulatory organs that must remain free of particle buildup
Correct answer: Dense sensory setae that accumulate debris and chemical residues requiring frequent cleaning
Cockroach antennae bear numerous chemosensory setae that accumulate debris and must be cleaned frequently for accurate environmental sensing.
Question 7: When designing an ant bait program, understanding grooming behavior is important because worker ants that groom excessively after bait contact may:
- Ingest a lethal dose faster, reducing transfer before they reach the colony (Correct answer)
- Transfer more bait material to nestmates through allogrooming
- Develop insecticide resistance through enzymatic breakdown during ingestion
- Recruit additional foragers to the bait station
Correct answer: Ingest a lethal dose faster, reducing transfer before they reach the colony
Excessive grooming after bait contact causes rapid self-intoxication of foragers, potentially reducing the number of workers that return bait to the colony.
ACE Grooming Techniques 3
Which term describes an insect cleaning another individual of the same species?