Effects of colony food shortage on behavioral development in honey bees.

摘要

Three experiments with single-cohort Apis mellifera colonies, composed entirely of young bees are described. In experiment 1, colony food shortage caused an acceleration of behavioural development; a significantly greater proportion of bees from starved colonies than from fed colonies became precocious foragers, and at significantly younger ages. Temporal aspects of this starvation effect were further explored in experiment 2 by feeding colonies that were initially starved, and starving colonies that were initially fed. There was a significant decrease in the number of new foragers in starved colonies that were fed, detected 1 day after feeding. There also was a significant increase in the number of new foragers in fed colonies that were starved,but only after a 2-day lag. It is suggested that colony nutritional status does affect long-term behavioural development, rather than only modulating the activity of bees already competent to forage. In experiment 3, the nutritional status of a colony was uncoupled from that of the individual colony members. The behaviour of fed individuals in starved colonies was indistinguishable from that of bees in fed colonies, but significantly different from that of bees in starved colonies, in terms of both thenumber and age distribution of foragers. It is concluded that the effects of starvation on temporal polyethism are not mediated by the most obvious possible worker-nest interaction: a direct interaction with colony food stores.