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Lajad R, Arenas A. Honey bee colonies change their foraging decisions after in-hive experiences with unsuitable pollen. J Exp Biol 2024; 227:jeb246233. [PMID: 38044836 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.246233] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2023] [Accepted: 11/28/2023] [Indexed: 12/05/2023]
Abstract
Pollen is the protein resource for Apis mellifera and its selection affects colony development and productivity. Honey bee foragers mainly lose their capacity to digest pollen, so we expect that those pollen constituents that can only be evaluated after ingestion will not influence their initial foraging preferences at food sources. We predicted that pollen composition may be evaluated in a delayed manner within the nest, for example, through the effects that the pollen causes on the colony according to its suitability after being used by in-hive bees. To address whether pollen foraging is mediated by in-hive experiences, we conducted dual-choice experiments to test the avoidance of pollen adulterated with amygdalin, a deterrent that causes post-ingestion malaise. In addition, we recorded pollen selection in colonies foraging in the field after being supplied or not with amygdalin-adulterated pollen from one of the dominant flowering plants (Diplotaxis tenuifolia). Dual-choice experiments revealed that foragers did not avoid adulterated pollens at the foraging site; however, they avoided pollen that had been offered adulterated within the nest on the previous days. In field experiments, pollen samples from colonies supplied with amygdalin-adulterated pollen were more diverse than controls, suggesting that pollen foraging was biased towards novel sources. Our findings support the hypothesis that pollen assessment relies on in-hive experiences mediated by pollen that causes post-ingestive malaise.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rocío Lajad
- Laboratorio de Insectos Sociales, Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias (IFIBYNE), CONICET - Universidad de Buenos Aires, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Andrés Arenas
- Laboratorio de Insectos Sociales, Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias (IFIBYNE), CONICET - Universidad de Buenos Aires, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Foraging and feeding are independently regulated by social and personal hunger in the clonal raider ant. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-021-02985-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
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Mayda N, Özkök A, Ecem Bayram N, Gerçek YC, Sorkun K. Bee bread and bee pollen of different plant sources: determination of phenolic content, antioxidant activity, fatty acid and element profiles. JOURNAL OF FOOD MEASUREMENT AND CHARACTERIZATION 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/s11694-020-00427-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
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Corby-Harris V, Snyder L, Meador C, Ayotte T. Honey bee (Apis mellifera) nurses do not consume pollens based on their nutritional quality. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0191050. [PMID: 29324841 PMCID: PMC5764376 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0191050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2017] [Accepted: 12/27/2017] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Honey bee workers (Apis mellifera) consume a variety of pollens to meet the majority of their requirements for protein and lipids. Recent work indicates that honey bees prefer diets that reflect the proper ratio of nutrients necessary for optimal survival and homeostasis. This idea relies on the precept that honey bees evaluate the nutritional composition of the foods provided to them. While this has been shown in bumble bees, the data for honey bees are mixed. Further, there is controversy as to whether foragers can evaluate the nutritional value of pollens, especially if they do not consume it. Here, we focused on nurse workers, who eat most of the pollen coming into the hive. We tested the hypothesis that nurses prefer diets with higher nutritional value. We first determined the nutritional profile, number of plant taxa (richness), and degree of hypopharyngeal gland (HG) growth conferred by three honey bee collected pollens. We then presented nurses with these same three pollens in paired choice assays and measured consumption. To further test whether nutrition influenced preference, we also presented bees with natural pollens supplemented with protein or lipids and liquid diets with protein and lipid ratios equal to the natural pollens. Different pollens conferred different degrees of HG growth, but despite these differences, nurse bees did not always prefer the most nutritious pollens. Adding protein and/or lipids to less desirable pollens minimally increased pollen attractiveness, and nurses did not exhibit a strong preference for any of the three liquid diets. We conclude that different pollens provide different nutritional benefits, but that nurses either cannot or do not assess pollen nutritional value. This implies that the nurses may not be able to communicate information about pollen quality to the foragers, who regulate the pollens coming into the hive.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vanessa Corby-Harris
- Carl Hayden Bee Research Center, USDA-ARS, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Lucy Snyder
- Carl Hayden Bee Research Center, USDA-ARS, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America
| | - Charlotte Meador
- Carl Hayden Bee Research Center, USDA-ARS, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America
| | - Trace Ayotte
- Carl Hayden Bee Research Center, USDA-ARS, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America
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Middleton EJT, Latty T. Resilience in social insect infrastructure systems. J R Soc Interface 2016; 13:rsif.2015.1022. [PMID: 26962030 DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2015.1022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Both human and insect societies depend on complex and highly coordinated infrastructure systems, such as communication networks, supply chains and transportation networks. Like human-designed infrastructure systems, those of social insects are regularly subject to disruptions such as natural disasters, blockages or breaks in the transportation network, fluctuations in supply and/or demand, outbreaks of disease and loss of individuals. Unlike human-designed systems, there is no deliberate planning or centralized control system; rather, individual insects make simple decisions based on local information. How do these highly decentralized, leaderless systems deal with disruption? What factors make a social insect system resilient, and which factors lead to its collapse? In this review, we bring together literature on resilience in three key social insect infrastructure systems: transportation networks, supply chains and communication networks. We describe how systems differentially invest in three pathways to resilience: resistance, redirection or reconstruction. We suggest that investment in particular resistance pathways is related to the severity and frequency of disturbance. In the final section, we lay out a prospectus for future research. Human infrastructure networks are rapidly becoming decentralized and interconnected; indeed, more like social insect infrastructures. Human infrastructure management might therefore learn from social insect researchers, who can in turn make use of the mature analytical and simulation tools developed for the study of human infrastructure resilience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eliza J T Middleton
- Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Sydney, Eveleigh, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Tanya Latty
- Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Sydney, Eveleigh, New South Wales, Australia
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Hendriksma HP, Oxman KL, Shafir S. Amino acid and carbohydrate tradeoffs by honey bee nectar foragers and their implications for plant-pollinator interactions. JOURNAL OF INSECT PHYSIOLOGY 2014; 69:56-64. [PMID: 24952325 DOI: 10.1016/j.jinsphys.2014.05.025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2013] [Revised: 05/28/2014] [Accepted: 05/31/2014] [Indexed: 05/09/2023]
Abstract
Honey bees are important pollinators, requiring floral pollen and nectar for nutrition. Nectar is rich in sugars, but contains additional nutrients, including amino acids (AAs). We tested the preferences of free-flying foragers between 20 AAs at 0.1% w/w in sucrose solutions in an artificial meadow. We found consistent preferences amongst AAs, with essential AAs preferred over nonessential AAs. The preference of foragers correlated negatively with AA induced deviations in pH values, as compared to the control. Next, we quantified tradeoffs between attractive and deterrent AAs at the expense of carbohydrates in nectar. Bees were attracted by phenylalanine, willing to give up 84units sucrose for 1unit AA. They were deterred by glycine, and adding 100 or more units of sucrose could resolve to offset 1unit AA. In addition, we tested physiological effects of AA nutrition on forager homing performance. In a no-choice context, caged bees showed indifference to 0.1% proline, leucine, glycine or phenylalanine in sucrose solutions. Furthermore, flight tests gave no indication that AA nutrition affected flight capacity directly. In contrast, low carbohydrate nutrition reduced the performance of bees, with important methodological implications for homing studies that evaluate the effect of substances that may affect imbibition of sugar solution. In conclusion, low AA concentrations in nectar relative to pollen suggest a limited role in bee nutrition. Most of the 20 AAs evoked a neutral to a mild deterrent response in bees, thus it seems unlikely that bees respond to AAs in nectar as a cue to assess nutritional quality. Nonetheless, free choice behavior of foraging bees is influenced, for instance by phenylalanine and glycine. Thus, AAs in nectar may affect plant-pollinator interactions and thereby exhibit a selective pressure on the flora in the honey bee habitat.
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Affiliation(s)
- Harmen P Hendriksma
- B. Triwaks Bee Research Center, Department of Entomology, Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
| | - Karmi L Oxman
- B. Triwaks Bee Research Center, Department of Entomology, Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot 76100, Israel
| | - Sharoni Shafir
- B. Triwaks Bee Research Center, Department of Entomology, Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot 76100, Israel
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Local behavioral rules sustain the cell allocation pattern in the combs of honey bee colonies (Apis mellifera). J Theor Biol 2013; 336:75-86. [PMID: 23876764 DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2013.07.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2012] [Revised: 07/09/2013] [Accepted: 07/10/2013] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
In the beeswax combs of honey bees, the cells of brood, pollen, and honey have a consistent spatial pattern that is sustained throughout the life of a colony. This spatial pattern is believed to emerge from simple behavioral rules that specify how the queen moves, where foragers deposit honey/pollen and how honey/pollen is consumed from cells. Prior work has shown that a set of such rules can explain the formation of the allocation pattern starting from an empty comb. We show that these rules cannot maintain the pattern once the brood start to vacate their cells, and we propose new, biologically realistic rules that better sustain the observed allocation pattern. We analyze the three resulting models by performing hundreds of simulation runs over many gestational periods and a wide range of parameter values. We develop new metrics for pattern assessment and employ them in analyzing pattern retention over each simulation run. Applied to our simulation results, these metrics show alteration of an accepted model for honey/pollen consumption based on local information can stabilize the cell allocation pattern over time. We also show that adding global information, by biasing the queen's movements towards the center of the comb, expands the parameter regime over which pattern retention occurs.
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Page RE, Rueppell O, Amdam GV. Genetics of reproduction and regulation of honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) social behavior. Annu Rev Genet 2012; 46:97-119. [PMID: 22934646 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-genet-110711-155610] [Citation(s) in RCA: 73] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Honeybees form complex societies with a division of labor for reproduction, nutrition, nest construction and maintenance, and defense. How does it evolve? Tasks performed by worker honeybees are distributed in time and space. There is no central control over behavior and there is no central genome on which selection can act and effect adaptive change. For 22 years, we have been addressing these questions by selecting on a single social trait associated with nutrition: the amount of surplus pollen (a source of protein) that is stored in the combs of the nest. Forty-two generations of selection have revealed changes at biological levels extending from the society down to the level of the gene. We show how we constructed this vertical understanding of social evolution using behavioral and anatomical analyses, physiology, genetic mapping, and gene knockdowns. We map out the phenotypic and genetic architectures of food storage and foraging behavior and show how they are linked through broad epistasis and pleiotropy affecting a reproductive regulatory network that influences foraging behavior. This is remarkable because worker honeybees have reduced reproductive organs and are normally sterile; however, the reproductive regulatory network has been co-opted for behavioral division of labor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert E Page
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.
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Aronne G, Giovanetti M, Guarracino MR, de Micco V. Foraging rules of flower selection applied by colonies ofApis mellifera: ranking and associations of floral sources. Funct Ecol 2012. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2435.2012.02017.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Giovanna Aronne
- Dipartimento di Arboricoltura Botanica e Patologia Vegetale; University of Naples Federico II; via Università 100; 80055; Portici; Italy
| | - Manuela Giovanetti
- Dipartimento di Arboricoltura Botanica e Patologia Vegetale; University of Naples Federico II; via Università 100; 80055; Portici; Italy
| | - Mario R. Guarracino
- Istituto di Calcolo e Reti ad Alte Prestazioni; Italian National Research Council; via Pietro Castellino 111; 80131; Napoli; Italy
| | - Veronica de Micco
- Dipartimento di Arboricoltura Botanica e Patologia Vegetale; University of Naples Federico II; via Università 100; 80055; Portici; Italy
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Johnson BR. Task partitioning in honey bees: the roles of signals and cues in group-level coordination of action. Behav Ecol 2010. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arq138] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
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Kitaoka TK, Nieh JC. Manuscript in preparation for Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Bumble bee pollen foraging regulation: role of pollen quality, storage levels, and odor. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2008. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-008-0684-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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Johnson BR. Global information sampling in the honey bee. Naturwissenschaften 2008; 95:523-30. [PMID: 18330538 DOI: 10.1007/s00114-008-0354-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2007] [Revised: 01/29/2008] [Accepted: 02/05/2008] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
Central to the question of task allocation in social insects is how workers acquire information. Patrolling is a curious behavior in which bees meander over the face of the comb inspecting cells. Several authors have suggested it allows bees to collect global information, but this has never been formally evaluated. This study explores this hypothesis by answering three questions. First, do bees gather information in a consistent manner as they patrol? Second, do they move far enough to get a sense of task demand in distant areas of the nest? And third, is patrolling a commonly performed task? Focal animal observations were used to address the first two predictions, while a scan sampling study was used to address the third. The results were affirmative for each question. While patrolling, workers collected information by performing periodic clusters of cell inspections. Patrolling bees not only traveled far enough to frequently change work zone; they often visited every part of the nest. Finally, the majority of the bees in the middle-age caste were shown to move throughout the nest over the course of a few hours in a manner suggestive of patrolling. Global information collection is contrary to much current theory, which assumes that workers respond to local information only. This study thus highlights the nonmutually exclusive nature of various information collection regimes in social insects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian R Johnson
- Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0116, USA.
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Liu FL, Zhang XW, Chai JP, Yang DR. Pollen phenolics and regulation of pollen foraging in honeybee colony. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2005. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-005-0084-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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Behavioral, Ecological, and Physiological Determinants of the Activity Patterns of Bees. ADVANCES IN THE STUDY OF BEHAVIOR 2004. [DOI: 10.1016/s0065-3454(04)34009-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 110] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/03/2022]
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