Regulation of honey bee division of labor by colony age demography

Zhi, Huang; Robinson, Gene E.

doi:10.1007/s002650050276

Cited by 457 publications

(392 citation statements)

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“…We collected bees that were displaying typical nursing behavior (head in cell containing a larva; see Huang and Robinson (1996). Collections were made when foragers were out of the hive during times of active foraging to minimize the chances of misidentification.…”

Section: Collections Of Beesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Senescence in the worker honey bee Apis Mellifera

Remolina

Hafez

Robinson

et al. 2007

Journal of Insect Physiology

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Honey bees are social insects that exhibit striking caste-specific differences in longevity. Queen honey bees live on average 1-2 years whereas workers live 2 to 6 weeks in the summer and about 20 weeks in the winter. It is not clear whether queen-worker differences in longevity are due to intrinsic physiological differences in the rate of senescence, to differential exposure to extrinsic factors such as predation and adverse environmental conditions, or both. To determine if the relatively short life span of worker bees involves senescence, we measured age-specific resistance to three different physiological stressors (starvation, thermal, and oxidative stress) while eliminating agerelated differences in foraging activity and minimizing age-related differences in energy expenditure. Despite these manipulations, older worker bees were still significantly less resistant to all three stressors than were younger bees. These results indicate that the regulation of worker bee lifespan involves senescence, in addition to extrinsic factors.

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Section: Collections Of Beesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Senescence in the worker honey bee Apis Mellifera

Remolina

Hafez

Robinson

et al. 2007

Journal of Insect Physiology

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“…2). Workers usually perform tasks associated with rapid senescence (foraging) after stages of slow (nursing) or negligible senescence (diutinus function), but foragers are able to revert to nursing activities if a colony's nurse bees are removed (Huang and Robinson, 1996) (see also Fig. 2C).…”

Section: Implications For Established Theories Of Agingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intergenerational transfers may have decoupled physiological and chronological age in a eusocial insect

Amdam

Page

2005

Ageing Research Reviews

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Life-history theory generally predicts that there should be no selection for longevity beyond the limit of reproductive capacity. However, the capacity to increase fitness may not end when individuals reach a state of functional sterility. Recent studies show that intergenerational transfers of resources from post-reproductive parents can increase the offspring's fitness, and analytical theory shows that age-trajectories of transfers may shape the course of senescence in social organisms. In eusocial insects, female roles are partitioned so that one phenotype or "caste" reproduces while another is responsible for resource transfers: the reproductive "queens" are arrested in a continuous reproductive mode, while transfer-activities such as hygienic behaviors, guarding, foraging and further food processing ("nursing") that increases the nutritional value of provisions are conducted by sterile "workers". Worker honey bees normally perform these tasks in a sequence so that nursing inside the protected nest is conducted prior to more risky exterior hive activities such as guarding and foraging. However, foragers may revert to nurse-activity in response to demographic changes, and worker bees can also develop into a stress resistant survival form with a 10-fold increase in lifespan. This elastic division of parental functions is believed to increase colony fitness. Further, it generates a stage-dependent trajectory of senescence that is difficult to address with established theories of aging. In the following, we show how a recent theory that includes resource transfers can be used to elucidate patterns of senescence in eusocial, non-reproducing individuals like the honey bee worker.

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“…However, honey bees exhibit phenotypic plasticity whereby the rate of behavioral change is highly flexible, meaning that under different scenarios, based on colony needs, bees will accelerate or reverse their behavioral development. For example, to compensate for a loss of foragers, disease, or nutritional stress, bees will initiate precocious (early behavioral development) foraging Huang and Robinson, 1996). It is biologically plausible that early initiation of foraging could lead to a shortage of hive bees needed to tend to the brood, which could hinder development of the brood.…”

Section: Normal Biologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, bees that forage earlier tend to do so at the expense of their longevity which could impact overall colony resource acquisition and productivity (Woyciechowski and Moroń, 2009). However, the relationship may be complex given that with seasonal variation, food availability, predation pressures, and adverse weather conditions that promote greater in-hive activity, older foragers can reverse their behavior, regenerate hypopharyngeal glands, and assume roles within the hive (Huang and Robinson, 1996).…”

Section: Normal Biologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Stressors that impact foraging activity and behavior that lead to low colony food stores or loss of foragers will induce behavioral role changes within the worker caste, causing precocious foraging by young hive bees (Schulz et al, 1998;Cheng et al, 2015;Huang and Robinson, 1996). Consequences of precocious foraging may include shorter worker lifespans, less efficient foraging due to maladapted flight muscles, and higher mortality due to inexperience of young foragers that may lead to weaker colonies (Perry et al, 2015;Vance et al, 2009).…”

Section: Consideration Of Biological Plausibility and Empirical Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

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