TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schilcher, Felix
A1  - Hilsmann, Lioba
A1  - Ankenbrand, Markus J.
A1  - Krischke, Markus
A1  - Mueller, Martin J.
A1  - Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf
A1  - Scheiner, Ricarda
T1  - Honeybees are buffered against undernourishment during larval stages
JF  - Frontiers in Insect Science
N2  - The negative impact of juvenile undernourishment on adult behavior has been well reported for vertebrates, but relatively little is known about invertebrates. In honeybees, nutrition has long been known to affect task performance and timing of behavioral transitions. Whether and how a dietary restriction during larval development affects the task performance of adult honeybees is largely unknown. We raised honeybees in-vitro, varying the amount of a standardized diet (150 µl, 160 µl, 180 µl in total). Emerging adults were marked and inserted into established colonies. Behavioral performance of nurse bees and foragers was investigated and physiological factors known to be involved in the regulation of social organization were quantified. Surprisingly, adult honeybees raised under different feeding regimes did not differ in any of the behaviors observed. No differences were observed in physiological parameters apart from weight. Honeybees were lighter when undernourished (150 µl), while they were heavier under the overfed treatment (180 µl) compared to the control group raised under a normal diet (160 µl). These data suggest that dietary restrictions during larval development do not affect task performance or physiology in this social insect despite producing clear effects on adult weight. We speculate that possible effects of larval undernourishment might be compensated during the early period of adult life.
KW  - nutrition
KW  - juvenile hormone
KW  - nurse bees
KW  - foragers
KW  - triglycerides
KW  - undernourishment
KW  - task allocation
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-304646
SN  - 2673-8600
VL  - 2
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schilcher, Felix
A1  - Hilsmann, Lioba
A1  - Rauscher, Lisa
A1  - Değirmenci, Laura
A1  - Krischke, Markus
A1  - Krischke, Beate
A1  - Ankenbrand, Markus
A1  - Rutschmann, Benjamin
A1  - Mueller, Martin J.
A1  - Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf
A1  - Scheiner, Ricarda
T1  - In vitro rearing changes social task performance and physiology in honeybees
JF  - Insects
N2  - In vitro rearing of honeybee larvae is an established method that enables exact control and monitoring of developmental factors and allows controlled application of pesticides or pathogens. However, only a few studies have investigated how the rearing method itself affects the behavior of the resulting adult honeybees. We raised honeybees in vitro according to a standardized protocol: marking the emerging honeybees individually and inserting them into established colonies. Subsequently, we investigated the behavioral performance of nurse bees and foragers and quantified the physiological factors underlying the social organization. Adult honeybees raised in vitro differed from naturally reared honeybees in their probability of performing social tasks. Further, in vitro-reared bees foraged for a shorter duration in their life and performed fewer foraging trips. Nursing behavior appeared to be unaffected by rearing condition. Weight was also unaffected by rearing condition. Interestingly, juvenile hormone titers, which normally increase strongly around the time when a honeybee becomes a forager, were significantly lower in three- and four-week-old in vitro bees. The effects of the rearing environment on individual sucrose responsiveness and lipid levels were rather minor. These data suggest that larval rearing conditions can affect the task performance and physiology of adult bees despite equal weight, pointing to an important role of the colony environment for these factors. Our observations of behavior and metabolic pathways offer important novel insight into how the rearing environment affects adult honeybees.
KW  - honeybee
KW  - artificial rearing
KW  - behavior
KW  - in vitro
KW  - juvenile hormone
KW  - triglycerides
KW  - PER
KW  - foraging
KW  - nursing
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-252305
SN  - 2075-4450
VL  - 13
IS  - 1
ER  -