Rapid behavioral maturation accelerates failure of stressed honey bee colonies.

ABSTRACT: Many complex factors have been linked to the recent marked increase in honey bee colony failure, including pests and pathogens, agrochemicals, and nutritional stressors. It remains unclear, however, why colonies frequently react to stressors by losing almost their entire adult bee population in a short time, resulting in a colony population collapse. Here we examine the social dynamics underlying such dramatic colony failure. Bees respond to many stressors by foraging earlier in life. We manipulated the demography of experimental colonies to induce precocious foraging in bees and used radio tag tracking to examine the consequences of precocious foraging for their performance. Precocious foragers completed far fewer foraging trips in their life, and had a higher risk of death in their first

SUBMITTER: Perry CJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4371971 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature