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  -