The Influence of Colony Size and of Nosema Disease on the Rate of Population Loss in Honey Bee Colonies in Winter1

Jeffree, E. P.; Allen, Delia M.

doi:10.1093/jee/49.6.831

Cited by 29 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…However, in an infection study, termite nymphs had higher fungal infection rates when reared in smaller groups or alone, versus in groups of moderate size [19]. Increased susceptibility to socially transmitted infectious agents has been reported in smaller and larger honeybee colonies relative to those of moderate size [20,21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Infectious disease and group size: more than just a numbers game

Nunn

Jordán

McCabe

et al. 2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

155

163

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

One contribution of 14 to a theme issue 'The sociality-health -fitness nexus in animal societies'. Increased risk of infectious disease is assumed to be a major cost of group living, yet empirical evidence for this effect is mixed. We studied whether larger social groups are more subdivided structurally. If so, the social subdivisions that form in larger groups may act as barriers to the spread of infection, weakening the association between group size and infectious disease. To investigate this 'social bottleneck' hypothesis, we examined the association between group size and four network structure metrics in 43 vertebrate and invertebrate species. We focused on metrics involving modularity, clustering, distance and centralization. In a meta-analysis of intraspecific variation in social networks, modularity showed positive associations with network size, with a weaker but still positive effect in cross-species analyses. Network distance also showed a positive association with group size when using intraspecific variation. We then used a theoretical model to explore the effects of subgrouping relative to other effects that influence disease spread in socially structured populations. Outbreaks reached higher prevalence when groups were larger, but subgrouping reduced prevalence. Subgrouping also acted as a 'brake' on disease spread between groups. We suggest research directions to understand the conditions under which larger groups become more subdivided, and to devise new metrics that account for subgrouping when investigating the links between sociality and infectious disease risk.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Infectious disease and group size: more than just a numbers game

Nunn

Jordán

McCabe

et al. 2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

155

163

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The size of the worker population is a critical variable that underlies the dynamic organization of the honeybee society (Jeffree and Allen, 1956). Order can be replaced by disorder, consequently, if the number of viable and diverse worker phenotypes declines.…”

Section: A Growth Disordermentioning

confidence: 99%

Order, Disorder, Death: Lessons from a Superorganism

Amdam¹,

Seehuus²

2006

Advances in Cancer Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Animal models contribute to the understanding of molecular mechanism of cancer, revealing complex roles of altered cellular-signaling networks and deficient surveillance systems. Analogous pathologies are documented in an unconventional model organism that receives attention in research on systems theory, evolution, and aging. The honeybee (Apis mellifera) colony is an advanced integrative unit, a "superorganism" in which order is controlled via complex signaling cascades and surveillance schemes. A facultatively sterile caste, the workers, regulates patterns of growth, differentiation, homeostasis, and death. Workers differentiate into temporal phenotypes in response to dynamic social cues; chemosensory signals that can translate into dramatic physiological responses, including programmed cell death. Temporal worker forms function together, and effectively identify and terminate abnormal colony members ranging from embryos to adults. As long as this regulatory system is operational at a colony level, the unit survives and propagates. However, if the worker phenotypes that collectively govern order become too few or change into malignant forms that bypass control mechanisms to replicate aberrantly; order is replaced by disorder that ultimately leads to the destruction of the society. In this chapter we describe fundamental properties of honeybee social organization, and explore conditions that lead to states of disorder. Our hope is that this chapter will be an inspirational source for ongoing and future work in the field of cancer research.

show abstract

“…Honey production (an important fitness component as it relates to winter survival) is not necessarily a simple function of colony size (Farrar 1937;Woyke 1984). Winter survival is highest for intermediate colony population sizes, particularly when diseases are present (Jeffree and Allen 1956).…”

Section: The Colony and Its State Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, infestation by tracheal mites has been shown to lead to colony failure in the honey bee (Royce and Rossignol 1990; Table 3). The microsporidian Nosema causes winter losses in the honey bee (Jeffree and Allen 1956); infested queens are more often superseded (Farrar 1947), and infected workers show reduced hoarding behavior (Rinderer and Elliott 1977). Parasitic infection suppresses worker reproduction in the ant Leptothorax nylanderi Forster (Salzemann and Plateaux 1987) and in the bumble bee Bombus terrestris L. (Shykoff and Schmid-Hempel 1991).…”

Section: Januaryifebmarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Invitation Paper (C.P. Alexander Fund): Foraging of Individual Workers in Relation to Colony State in the Social Hymenoptera

Schmid‐Hempel¹,

Winston

Ydenberg

1993

Can Entomol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Canadian Entomolo~isr 125: 12%160 (1993) Workers of social insects are members of colonies that survive and reproduce together. Therefore, the behavioral activities of individual workers should be integrated with colony state. We here summarize and discuss the relationship between colony state and foraging behavior of individual workers under the provisional assumption that the colony is a unit. We argue that colony state can be described by a number of variables that should relate to fitness components in order to be meaningful. Among the possible candidates, colony population size seems to have an overriding importance in many respects, as shown by its relation to fitness components such as survival probability and reproductive performance. Other important variables include colony demography, i.e. caste or size distributions, nutritional status, or queen number. Each of these variables has been shown to affect fitness components; however, the evidence is rather scanty. We also discuss the evidence that variation in colony state variables relates to variation in individual worker behavior. Nutritional status (i.e. low or high levels of food stores) and colony size have been shown repeatedly to affect individual behavior. However, most of the evidence comes from the honey bee. Some studies suggest that behavioral responses are hierarchically structured. More work needs to be done to investigate the actual mechanisms of integration of individual behavior with colony state. Some knowledge has accumulated about the processes that govern recruitment to food sources. We conclude this review by discussing some concepts and problems for further research. These include the concept of a preferred colony state to which the colony should return after disturbance through the behavioral activities of the workers. Further theoretical elaboration and empirical investigations may help to elucidate whether this concept is useful and necessary. A largely neglected issue concerns the number versus effort problem, i.e. whether individuals should work harder or more workers should be allocated to a task that is in demand. We propose a simple scenario that suggests testable predictions. Finally, we discuss how colony state, individual work load, and the dependence of worker mortality rate on activity level may interact to generate different short-term foraging strategies that workers should adopt. ResumeChez les insectes sociaux, les ouvrikres appartiennent i une colonie ou la survie et la reproduction sont des phknombnes collectifs. Les activitks comportementales de chacune des ouvribres font donc partie intkgrante de l'ktat de la colonie. La relation entre I'ktat de la colonie et le comportement de qu&te de nourriture d'ouvrikres particulikres est dkfinie et examinee dans le cadre de l'hypothkse selon laquelle la colonie fonctionne comme une unitk. Nous croyons que I'ktat de la colonie peut &tre dkcrit par un certain nombre de variables qui n'ont de sens que si elles sont relikes aux composantes du "fitness." Parmi l...

show abstract

The Influence of Colony Size and of Nosema Disease on the Rate of Population Loss in Honey Bee Colonies in Winter1

Cited by 29 publications

References 0 publications

Infectious disease and group size: more than just a numbers game

Infectious disease and group size: more than just a numbers game

Order, Disorder, Death: Lessons from a Superorganism

Invitation Paper (C.P. Alexander Fund): Foraging of Individual Workers in Relation to Colony State in the Social Hymenoptera

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About