The influence of pollen quality on foraging behavior in honeybees ( Apis mellifera L.)

Pernal, Stephen F.; Currie, R. William

doi:10.1007/s002650100412

Cited by 165 publications

(134 citation statements)

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“…In the field, we observed bees antennating pollen, potentially assessing its quality. Bumble bees appear to determine pollen quality by its protein content through tactile chemoreceptors and show preferences for high-protein pollen (26,52), whereas honey bees do not appear to share the same preference (25,29,30). Although both species may be sensitive to protein quality, the preferences observed in previous studies may reflect species-specific differences in nutritional requirements for protein and lipids.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Bumble bee workers can taste and discriminate among diets with different protein or pollen concentrations (26), and their foraging activity has been positively correlated with pollen protein content using modified (diluted with cellulose powder) single-source pollen diets (27,28) or a single plant species in which pollen protein content varied with soil conditions (20). [Note that in field studies honey bees do not appear to forage preferentially on pollen with higher protein concentrations (29,30)]. However, diluting pollen with cellulose powder may simply make diets less attractive by reducing all pollen cues, and modifying the soil conditions may alter factors other than pollen protein that may influence bee…”

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confidence: 99%

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Macronutrient ratios in pollen shape bumble bee ( Bombus impatiens ) foraging strategies and floral preferences

Vaudo

Patch

Mortensen

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

298

302

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To fuel their activities and rear their offspring, foraging bees must obtain a sufficient quality and quantity of nutritional resources from a diverse plant community. Pollen is the primary source of proteins and lipids for bees, and the concentrations of these nutrients in pollen can vary widely among host-plant species. Therefore we hypothesized that foraging decisions of bumble bees are driven by both the protein and lipid content of pollen. By successively reducing environmental and floral cues, we analyzed pollen-foraging preferences of Bombus impatiens in (i) host-plant species, (ii) pollen isolated from these hostplant species, and (iii) nutritionally modified single-source pollen diets encompassing a range of protein and lipid concentrations. In our semifield experiments, B. impatiens foragers exponentially increased their foraging rates of pollen from plant species with high protein: lipid (P:L) ratios; the most preferred plant species had the highest ratio (∼4.6:1). These preferences were confirmed in cage studies where, in pairwise comparisons in the absence of other floral cues, B. impatiens workers still preferred pollen with higher P:L ratios. Finally, when presented with nutritionally modified pollen, workers were most attracted to pollen with P:L ratios of 5:1 and 10:1, but increasing the protein or lipid concentration (while leaving ratios intact) reduced attraction. Thus, macronutritional ratios appear to be a primary factor driving bee pollen-foraging behavior and may explain observed patterns of host-plant visitation across the landscape. The nutritional quality of pollen resources should be taken into consideration when designing conservation habitats supporting bee populations.foraging behavior | nutritional ecology | pollen | pollinator | preferences F oraging animals must obtain appropriate nutrients for growth, development, and reproduction from their environments. Bees forage in a very complex and changing environment, where floral nutritional resources (nectar and pollen) vary widely in quality and quantity among plant species (1). These resources are accompanied by myriad floral cues, including floral odors, color, morphology, and display area, and can vary dramatically in spatiotemporal availability; all these factors may influence and reinforce foraging decisions (2, 3). Worldwide declines in populations of bees and other pollinators have been linked to reduced diversity and abundance of host-plant species, likely placing bees under nutritional stress (4, 5). To develop strategic conservation protocols that preserve or restore foraging habitat that supports healthy pollinator populations, we must understand how bees forage in their environments to meet their nutritional needs. It is well established that solitary and social insects can forage selectively and regulate their intake of synthetic diets spanning a range of macronutrient nutritional qualities to reach their optimal, species-specific nutritional intake (6-8). Here we examine whether the generalist bumble bee species Bombus...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Macronutrient ratios in pollen shape bumble bee ( Bombus impatiens ) foraging strategies and floral preferences

Vaudo

Patch

Mortensen

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

298

302

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“…Pollen, one of the floral resources collected by bees, is the natural source of protein for these insects (Pernal and Currie, 2001). During times of pollen dearth, the pollen reserves in the combs and protein reserves in bees are rapidly expended.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protein levels and colony development of Africanized and European honey bees fed natural and artificial diets

Morais

Turcatto²,

Pereira³

et al. 2013

Genet. Mol. Res.

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ABSTRACT. Pollen substitute diets are a valuable resource for maintaining strong and health honey bee colonies. Specific diets may be useful in one region or country and inadequate or economically unviable in others. We compared two artificial protein diets that had been formulated from locally-available ingredients in Brazil with bee bread and a nonprotein sucrose diet. Groups of 100 newly-emerged, adult workers of Africanized honey bees in Brazil and European honey bees in the USA were confined in small cages and fed on one of four diets for seven days. The artificial diets included a high protein diet made of soy milk powder and albumin, and a lower protein level diet consisting of soy milk powder, brewer's yeast and rice bran. The initial protein levels in newly emerged bees were approximately 18-21 µg/µL hemolymph. After feeding on the diets for seven days, the protein levels in the hemolymph were similar among the protein diet groups (~37-49 µg/µL after seven days), although Africanized bees acquired higher protein levels, increasing 145 and 100% on diets D1 and D2, respectively, versus 83 and 60% in the European bees. All the protein diets resulted in significantly higher levels of protein than sucrose solution alone. In the field, the two pollen substitute diets were tested during periods of low pollen availability in the field in two regions of Brazil. Food consumption, population development, colony weight, and honey production were evaluated to determine the impact of the diets on colony strength parameters. The colonies fed artificial diets had a significant improvement in all parameters, while control colonies dwindled during the dearth period. We conclude that these two artificial protein diets have good potential as pollen substitutes during dearth periods and that Africanized bees more efficiently utilize artificial protein diets than do European honey bees.

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“…pellets presented higher ethereal extract, crude protein and organic matter and lower mineral matter and total carbohydrate values than the average of the results for these nutritional components from the pollen gathered during the same period (Table 1), with the pollen types most collected during the fungus collection period being Alchornea and Cecropia. Despite the high protein value of the fungi evaluated, the bee capacity to distinguish the nutritional composition of the feed to be collected is quite discussed (Pernal & Currie 2001, Cook et al 2003. However, Wingfi eld et al (1989) observed that A. mellifera apparently prefers collecting the fungus Melampsora ricini over pollen, whenever the fungus is available.…”

Section: May -June 2009mentioning

confidence: 99%

Saprophytic fungus collection by africanized bees in Brazil

Modro¹,

Silva

Message

et al. 2009

Neotrop. entomol.

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The influence of pollen quality on foraging behavior in honeybees ( Apis mellifera L.)

Cited by 165 publications

References 58 publications

Macronutrient ratios in pollen shape bumble bee ( Bombus impatiens ) foraging strategies and floral preferences

Macronutrient ratios in pollen shape bumble bee ( Bombus impatiens ) foraging strategies and floral preferences

Protein levels and colony development of Africanized and European honey bees fed natural and artificial diets

Saprophytic fungus collection by africanized bees in Brazil

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