Effects of nutritional deprivation on development and behavior in the subsocial beeCeratina calcarata(Hymenoptera: Xylocopinae)

Abstract

By manipulating resources or dispersal opportunities, mothers can force offspring to remain at the nest to help raise siblings, creating a division of labor. In the subsocial bee , mothers manipulate the quantity and quality of pollen provided to the first female offspring, producing a dwarf eldest daughter that is physically smaller and behaviorally subordinate. This daughter forages for her siblings and forgoes her own reproduction. To understand how the mother's manipulation of pollen affects the physiology and behavior of her offspring, we manipulated the amount of pollen provided to offspring and measured the effects of pollen quantity on offspring development, adult body size and behavior. We found that by experimentally manipulating pollen quantities we could recreate the dwarf eldest daughter phenotype, demonstrating how nutrient deficiency alone can lead to the development of a worker-like daughter. Specifically, by reducing the pollen and nutrition to offspring, we significantly reduced adult body size and lipid stores, creating significantly less aggressive, subordinate individuals. Worker behavior in an otherwise solitary bee begins to explain how maternal manipulation of resources could lead to the development of social organization and reproductive hierarchies, a major step in the transition to highly social behaviors.

Juvenile hormone interacts with multiple factors to modulate aggression and dominance in groups of orphan bumble bee (Bombus terrestris) workers

“…These findings are consistent with earlier studies showing that body size affects dominance in untreated B. terrestris (P. Van Doorn, 1989) and B. atratus worker bees (Matos and Garofalo, 1995). Body size is also correlated with dominance rank in other social bees (e.g., 2 6 carpenter bees, Withee and Rehan, (2016), Lawson et al, (2017); halictine bee, Smith and Weller, (1989)) as well as other social insects such as paper wasps (Cervo et al, 2008;Chandrashekara and Gadagkar, 1991;Zanette and Field, 2009) and queenless ants (Heinze and Oberstadt, 1999;Nowbahari et al, 1999;Trible and Kronauer, 2017). The common correlation between body size and dominance rank can be explained by the importance of body size in determining the outcome of the agonistic interactions that are used for the establishment of dominance hierarchies.…”

Queen Dominance May Reduce Worker Mushroom Body Size in a Social Bee

“…Larval nutrition affects brain morphology in honeybees, with queens having larger and more rapidly growing brains in the larval stage (Moda et al , ), and reduced larval nutrition results in smaller MB calyces at emergence in workers (Steijven et al , ), but this has not been studied in primitively eusocial groups. Variation in larval nutrition can affect reproductive physiology and behavior in other sweat bee species (Richards and Packer, ; Brand and Chapuisat, ) as well as other species of primitively eusocial insects (Judd et al , ; Lawson et al , ; ; Kapheim, ). Our previous work on this species suggests that queens manipulate larval pollen resources to create small, subordinate worker daughters (Smith et al , ; ; Kapheim et al , ; ).…”

“…Lastly, just as queens are dominant, workers are subordinate and bullied by queen aggressive behaviors which leads to suppressed ovarian development and other physiological effects, including lower levels of JH (Smith et al , ; Hamilton et al , ). Queen manipulation of worker behavior and reproductive physiology extends to the larval stages as well because it is the foundress queen who controls the larval provisions provided to the developing workers (Michener and Brothers, ; Kapheim et al , ; Kapheim, ; Lawson et al , ). Thus, workers may have smaller MBs as a result of maternal manipulation of nutrition and/or behavioral aggression.…”

Mitigating the Effects of Habitat Loss on Solitary Bees in Agricultural Ecosystems

“…When the larvae of the sweat bee, Lasioglossum zephyrum, were offered pollen with differing protein contents, larvae that were fed protein-rich pollen grew to a larger size than those who were fed protein-poor pollen [61]. In another example, larvae of the subsocial bee, Ceratina calcarata, grew to a smaller adult size and had lower lipid stores when fed a diet with reduced amounts of pollen and nectar [62]. Similar effects have been observed in social bees as well.…”