The sensitivity of a honeybee colony to worker mortality depends on season and resource availability.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Honeybees have extraordinary phenotypic plasticity in their senescence rate, making them a fascinating model system for the evolution of aging. Seasonal variation in senescence and extrinsic mortality results in a tenfold increase in worker life expectancy in winter as compared to summer. To understand the evolution of this remarkable pattern of aging, we must understand how individual longevity scales up to effects on the entire colony. In addition, threats to the health of honey bees and other social insects are typically measured at the individual level. To predict the effects of environmental change on social insect populations, we must understand how individual effects impact colony performance. We develop a matrix model of colony demographics to ask how worker age-

SUBMITTER: Lemanski NJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7596992 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature