Effects of colony food shortage on behavioral development in honey bees

Schulz, David J.; Zhi, Huang; Robinson, Gene E.

doi:10.1007/s002650050442

Cited by 210 publications

(183 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…AHB collect more pollen than EHB (Winston 1992;Spivak 1992;Schneider et al 2004a) and can attain higher hemolymph protein levels from it. This would enable colonies to rear more brood and have workers with extended adult life spans (Schultz et al 1998;. Together these factors will generate rapid colony growth and high rates of swarming.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparison of bee bread made by Africanized and European honey bees (Apis mellifera) and its effects on hemolymph protein titers

2012

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-The influence of genotype on the conversion of pollen to bee bread and on the protein titers of bees feeding on it was examined using European and Africanized honey bees (EHB and AHB). Bee bread was more acidic than the pollen, and that made by EHB was slightly more acidic than AHB. Protein concentration in bee bread was similar for both subspecies and lower than in the pollen. In general, amino acid concentrations were higher in bee bread compared with pollen. The only exception was tryptophan. Concentrations of most amino acids in bee bread made by either EHB or AHB were similar. Both subspecies consumed more bee bread made by AHB than EHB. EHB and AHB consumed similar amounts of each type of bee bread, but protein concentrations in AHB were higher than in EHB. Differences in protein acquisition between AHB and EHB might reflect environmental adaptations related to the geographic region where each evolved and could contribute to the successful establishment of AHB populations in the New World.nutrition / microbes / protein / amino acids

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparison of bee bread made by Africanized and European honey bees (Apis mellifera) and its effects on hemolymph protein titers

2012

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“…4 20 000 bees). We used triple-cohort colonies so as to be able to perform each replicate of an experiment with a set of colonies in which there was precise control of important variables that can a¡ect behavioural development such as colony age demography, genotypic structure and food reserves (Giray & Robinson 1994;Huang & Robinson 1996;Schulz et al 1998). Bees in triple-cohort colonies show normal rates of behavioural development (Giray & Robinson 1994), which was the behavioural variable we measured in this study.…”

Section: (B) Experimental Coloniesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Primer effects of a brood pheromone on honeybee behavioural development

Conte

Mohammedi

Robinson

2001

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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159

123

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Primer pheromones are thought to act in a variety of vertebrates and invertebrates but only a few have been chemically identi¢ed. We report that a blend of ten fatty-acid esters found on the cuticles of honeybee larvae, already known as a kairomone, releaser pheromone and primer pheromone, also act as a primer pheromone in the regulation of division of labour among adult workers. Bees in colonies receiving brood pheromone initiated foraging at signi¢cantly older ages than did bees in control colonies in ¢ve out of ¢ve trials. Laboratory and additional ¢eld tests also showed that exposure to brood pheromone signi¢cantly depressed blood titres of juvenile hormone. Brood pheromone exerted more consistent e¡ects on age at ¢rst foraging than on juvenile hormone, suggesting that the primer e¡ects of this pheromone may occur via other, unknown, mechanisms besides juvenile hormone. These results bring the number of social factors known to in£uence honeybee division of labour to three: worker^worker interactions, queen mandibular pheromone and brood pheromone.

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“…Moreover, flight is vital for foraging success as foraging for nectar and pollen sometimes involves several hours of flying a day and carrying heavy loads [14,18]. Negative effects on foraging performance may reduce pollen availability in the colony (as suggested by Wolf et al [16]), which reduces the number of reared bees [19], weakens newly hatched bees by reduced body mass and protein content [20,21], and induces precocious foraging [22,23]. A reduced food-collecting ability due to multiple stressors may ( partly) prevent the coping mechanism of precocious foraging, while the purpose of precocious foraging is to replenish the colony resources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interaction betweenVarroa destructorand imidacloprid reduces flight capacity of honeybees

2015

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Current high losses of honeybees seriously threaten crop pollination. Whereas parasite exposure is acknowledged as an important cause of these losses, the role of insecticides is controversial. Parasites and neonicotinoid insecticides reduce homing success of foragers (e.g. by reduced orientation), but it is unknown whether they negatively affect flight capacity. We investigated how exposing colonies to the parasitic mite Varroa destructor and the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid affect flight capacity of foragers. Flight distance, time and speed of foragers were measured in flight mills to assess the relative and interactive effects of high V. destructor load and a field-realistic, chronic sub-lethal dose of imidacloprid. Foragers from colonies exposed to high levels of V. destructor flew shorter distances, with a larger effect when also exposed to imidacloprid. Bee body mass partly explained our results as bees were heavier when exposed to these stressors, possibly due to an earlier onset of foraging. Our findings contribute to understanding of interacting stressors that can explain colony losses. Reduced flight capacity decreases the food-collecting ability of honeybees and may hamper the use of precocious foraging as a coping mechanism during colony (nutritional) stress. Ineffective coping mechanisms may lead to destructive cascading effects and subsequent colony collapse.

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Effects of colony food shortage on behavioral development in honey bees

Cited by 210 publications

References 41 publications

A comparison of bee bread made by Africanized and European honey bees (Apis mellifera) and its effects on hemolymph protein titers

A comparison of bee bread made by Africanized and European honey bees (Apis mellifera) and its effects on hemolymph protein titers

Primer effects of a brood pheromone on honeybee behavioural development

Interaction betweenVarroa destructorand imidacloprid reduces flight capacity of honeybees

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