Effects of Pollen Deprivation in Groups of Tellian (Apis mellifera intermissa) and Saharan (Apis mellifera sahariensis) Honey Bees under Controlled Conditions

Abstract

Worldwide, honey bees are increasingly faced with periods of pollen scarcity, which can lead to nutritional deficiencies, especially of proteins and amino acids. These are essential for the proper functioning of the single organism and the colony. To understand how bees react to protein deficiency, under controlled conditions, we studied the effect of pollen deficiency on the main physiological parameters in two subspecies endemic of Algeria, Apis mellifera intermissa and Apismellifera sahariensis. Emerging workers of both subspecies were reared with two diets: one was pollen-fed, whereas the other pollen-deprived. Several physiological criteria were measured depending on the type of diet and subspecies: the survival of the bees, the amount of total protein in the hemolymph, hypopharyngeal glands development and the ovary development of workers. These last three parameters were assessed at three different ages (7, 14 and 21 days). At birth, sahariensis workers weighed more than intermissa. With the same protein diet, the average life expectancy of sahariensis was extended by 5.55 days compared to intermissa. Even if deprived of pollen, sahariensis lived longer than intermissa fed with pollen (p < 0.001). In the three age levels, the hypopharyngeal glands were more developed and less affected by pollen deficiency (p < 0.001) in sahariensis than in intermissa (p < 0.001). The total hemolymph protein was higher in intermissa than in sahariensis regardless of the diet, and was also higher in protein-fed than in deprived bees (p < 0.001). The ovaries developed more rapidly with a high proportion in intermissa than in sahariensis (p < 0.05) regardless of the diet, and was also higher in the bees fed with pollen than those deprived (p < 0.05). Pollen deficiency generates physiological alterations and modifications, the amplitude of which varied according to the subspecies of the bee studied.

Flight performance of pollen starved honey bees and incomplete compensation through ingestion after early life pollen deprivation

“…Accordingly, we found that early adult life pollen deprivation for 7 days is enough to stunt honey bee survival in vitro, whereas significant impacts on longevity so far have mostly been established for life-long pollen deprivation (Omar et al, 2017;Khedidji et al, 2022) or when bees were offered only a lowered share (40%) of the amount of oilseed rape pollen usually consumed (di Pasquale et al, 2016). Consequences of early life stress in honey bees have so far been mostly investigated by manipulating parasite or nutrition levels during the developmental stages (Scofield and Mattila, 2015;Rueppel et al, 2017).…”

Natural clines and human management impact the genetic structure of Algerian honey bee populations

“…Several molecular studies have been conducted on Algerian bees notably with microsatellite markers [ 16 ] and a single A.m. intermissa individual was sequenced [ 17 ]. In addition, research has also been performed on hive products (honey and pollen) in different scientific contexts [ 18 ].…”