Honey Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Nursing Responses to Cuticular Cues Emanating from Short-term Changes in Larval Rearing Environment.

ABSTRACT: Honey bee larvae are dependent on the social structure of colony for their provisioning and survival. With thousands of larvae being managed collectively by groups of foragers (collecting food resources) and nurse bees (processing food and provisioning larvae), coordination of colony efforts in rearing brood depends on multiple dynamic cues of larval presence and needs. Much of these cues appear to be chemical, with larvae producing multiple pheromones, major being brood ester pheromone (BEP; nonvolatile blend of fatty acid esters) that elicits both short-term releaser effects and long-term primer effects. While BEP can affect colony food collection and processing with the signaling of larval presence, it is unclear if BEP signals individual larval needs. To understand this aspect, in a se

SUBMITTER: Metz BN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8559155 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature