Honey bee workers that are pollen stressed as larvae become poor foragers and waggle dancers as adults.

ABSTRACT: The negative effects on adult behavior of juvenile undernourishment are well documented in vertebrates, but relatively poorly understood in invertebrates. We examined the effects of larval nutritional stress on the foraging and recruitment behavior of an economically important model invertebrate, the honey bee (Apis mellifera). Pollen, which supplies essential nutrients to developing workers, can become limited in colonies because of seasonal dearths, loss of foraging habitat, or intensive management. However, the functional consequences of being reared by pollen-stressed nestmates remain unclear, despite growing concern that poor nutrition interacts with other stressors to exacerbate colony decline. We manipulated nurse bees' access to pollen and then assessed differences in weight, longe

SUBMITTER: Scofield HN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4390236 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature