The Influences of Illumination Regime on Egg-laying Rhythms of Honey Bee Queens.

ABSTRACT: Honey bee queens show extreme fecundity, commonly laying more than a thousand eggs in a single day. It has proven challenging to study the temporal organization of egg-laying behavior because queens are typically active around the clock in the dark cavity of a densely populated nest. To contend with this challenge, we developed two novel methods allowing detailed monitoring of queen activity and egg laying. We first adapted a high-resolution, continuous, tracking system allowing to track the position of barcode-tagged queens in observation hives with colonies foraging outside. We found that the queen is active ~96% of the day with typically no diurnal rhythm. Next, we developed a new laboratory procedure to monitor egg laying at single egg resolution under different light regimes. We found

SUBMITTER: Shpigler HY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9727117 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature