Worker size in honeybees and its relationship with season and foraging distance

Sauthier, Romain; Price, Robbie I’Anson; Grüter, Christoph

doi:10.1007/s13592-016-0468-0

Cited by 19 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Furthermore, the arthropods’ body size can vary among and within populations or between seasons (e.g. for honeybees: Sauthier, l’Anson Price, & Grüter, ), and can be correlated with specific foraging behaviours (Peat, Tucker, & Goulson, ). The mass of several individuals from the wild or laboratory population should be provided, or at least a size measure relevant for the arthropod species group (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The neglected impact of tracking devices on terrestrial arthropods

et al. 2020

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Tracking devices have become small enough to be widely applied to arthropods to study their movement. However, possible side effects of these devices on arthropod performance and behaviour are rarely considered. We performed a systematic review of 173 papers about research in which tracking devices—radio frequency identification (RFID), harmonic radar and radio telemetry tags—were attached to terrestrial arthropods. The impact of such tags was quantified in only 12% of the papers, while in 40% the potential impact was completely disregarded. Often‐cited rules of thumb for determining appropriate tag weight had either no empirical basis or were misconstrued. Several properties of a tracking device (e.g. weight, balance, size, drag) can affect different aspects of an arthropod's life history (e.g. energy, movement, foraging, mating). The impact can differ among species and environments. Taken together, these tag effects can influence the reliability of obtained movement data and conclusions drawn from them. We argue that the impact of tracking devices on arthropods should be quantified for each (a) study species, (b) tag type, and (c) environmental context. As an example, we include a low‐effort impact study of the effect of an RFID tag on a digger wasp. Technological advancements enable studying the movement of arthropods in unprecedented detail. However, we should adopt a more critical attitude towards the use of tracking devices on terrestrial arthropods. The benefits of tracking devices should be balanced against their potential side effects on arthropods and on the reliability of the resulting data.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The neglected impact of tracking devices on terrestrial arthropods

et al. 2020

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“…For example, in the bumblebee Bombus impatiens, morphological polymorphism is a result of poorer nutrition of larvae in the peripheral nest zones (Couvillon and Dornhaus 2009). Compared to the social insects mentioned above, the body size in honeybee workers varies within a very narrow range (Sauthier et al 2016). This is probably a result of good care of larvae, especially during the full season when bee colonies are strong (large numbers of nurse bees), and rearing worker bees in honeycombs with low cell size variability, which is additionally reduced by the use of an artificially produced wax foundation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some of these assumptions were considered, and the width of comb cell width was increased when the artificially manufactured wax foundation was introduced. It was assumed that the body size of worker bees would increase proportionally to the increase in comb cells (Grout 1937), which would be accompanied by a rise in productivity, as larger worker bees can theoretically carry heavier pollen and nectar loads (Sauthier et al 2016). The belief that the size of the worker's body changes proportionally to alterations in the cell width still persists (Ruttner 1988(Ruttner , 1992McMullan and Brown 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Possibility to change the body size in worker bees by a combination of small-cell and standard-cell combs in the same nest

2021

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The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of the combination of the colony type (kept on small-cell or standard-cell combs) and the width of worker comb cells (small-cell or standard-cell combs) on the body weight and morphometric traits of worker bees. The values of morphometric parameters of worker bees changed within a substantially lower range than the width of their rearing cells. This indicates that the worker body size is relatively constant, and manipulation with the cell width is not a good method for modeling the body size of workers. The reduction in the thorax weight was proportional to the decrease in the comb cell width, and this part of the body proved to be most susceptible to weight reduction caused by the use of small-cell combs. The rearing of workers in small-cell combs in the colony kept on standard-cell combs resulted in an increase in the value of the fill factor (thorax width to cell width ratio). The relatively constant body size of workers in combination with the use of small-cell combs resulting in an increase in the fill factor may be one of the determinants of increased resistance of the insects to Varroa destructor. The values of the morphometric traits commonly used for identification of honeybee subspecies, i.e., the length of the fore wing, the sum of the widths of 3rd and 4thth tergites, and the proboscis length, were inconsiderably altered vs. the changes in the comb cell width, which confirms their high suitability for identification of honeybee subspecies.

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“…Waddington (1989) hypothesized that size variation negatively affects waggle dance communication in honeybees because bees of different sizes may judge distances to food sources differentially. These costs of size variation could in turn select for low intracolonial size variation (see also Waddington et al 1986;Sauthier et al 2017). While strong evidence for this is lacking, our finding that the size-frequency distribution in T. nylanderi colonies shows significant kurtosis (a leptokurtic distribution) indicates that there might be selection against body sizes that deviate strongly from the mean.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

Large body size variation is associated with low communication success in tandem running ants

Wagner

Bachenberg

Glaser

et al. 2020

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Diversity in animal groups is often assumed to increase group performance. In insect colonies, genetic, behavioural and morphological variation among workers can improve colony functioning and resilience. However, it has been hypothesized that during communication processes, differences between workers, e.g. in body size, could also have negative effects. Tandem running is a common recruitment strategy in ants and allows a leader to guide a nestmate follower to resources. A substantial proportion of tandem runs fail because leader and follower lose contact. Using the ant Temnothorax nylanderi as a model system, we tested the hypothesis that tandem running success is impaired if leader and follower differ in size. Indeed, we found that the success rate of tandem pairs drops considerably as size variation increases: tandem runs were unsuccessful when the leader–follower size difference exceeded 10%, whereas ~ 80% of tandem runs were successful when ants differed less than 5% in body length. Possible explanations are that size differences are linked to differences in walking speed or sensory perception. Ants did not choose partners of similar size, but extranidal workers were larger than intranidal workers, which could reduce recruitment mistakes because it reduced the chance that very large and very small ants perform tandem runs together. Our results suggest that phenotypic differences between interacting workers can have negative effects on the efficiency of communication processes. Whether phenotypic variation has positive or negative effects is likely to depend on the task and the phenotypic trait that shows variation. Significance statement Diversity is often assumed to increase colony performance in social insects. However, phenotypic differences among workers could also have negative effects, e.g. during communication. Tandem running is a common recruitment strategy in ants, but tandem runs often fail when ants lose contact. We used the ant Temnothorax nylanderi to test the hypothesis that body size differences between tandem leader and follower impair tandem communication. We show that the success rate of tandem pairs drops considerably as size variation increases, possibly because ants of varying size also differ in walking speed. Our study supports the hypothesis that phenotypic variation among workers might not always be beneficial and can negatively impact the efficiency of communication processes.

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Worker size in honeybees and its relationship with season and foraging distance

Cited by 19 publications

References 40 publications

The neglected impact of tracking devices on terrestrial arthropods

The neglected impact of tracking devices on terrestrial arthropods

Possibility to change the body size in worker bees by a combination of small-cell and standard-cell combs in the same nest

Large body size variation is associated with low communication success in tandem running ants

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