Bee population declines are linked to the reduction of nutritional resources due to land-use intensification, yet we know little about the specific nutritional needs of many bee species. Pollen provides bees with their primary source of protein and lipids, but nutritional quality varies widely among host-plant species. Therefore, bees might have adapted to assess resource quality and adjust the...

Bee population declines are linked to reduction of nutritional resources due to land-use intensification, yet we know little about the specific nutritional needs of many bee species. Pollen provides bees their primary source of protein and lipids, but nutritional quality varies widely among host-plant species. Therefore, bees may be adapted to assess resource quality and adjust their foraging b...

Oldroyd and Beekman attempt to test the forager reproductive ground plan hypothesis (forager RGPH) using a selected strain of anarchistic worker honey bees. The authors conclude that their experiment does not support the forager RGPH, and they strongly criticize studies in support of the hypothesis that have used strains selected for high and low levels of pollen hoarding. We show here that the...

BACKGROUND Variation in individual behavior within social groups can affect the fitness of the group as well as the individual, and can be caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. However, the molecular factors associated with individual variation in social behavior remain relatively unexplored. We used honey bees (Apis mellifera) as a model to examine differences in social...

Given the role of infectious disease in global pollinator decline, there is a need to understand factors that shape pathogen susceptibility and transmission in bees. Here we ask how urbanization affects the immune response and pathogen load of feral and managed colonies of honey bees (Apis mellifera Linnaeus), the predominant economically important pollinator worldwide. Using quantitative real-...

In honeybee colonies there normally is a queen that lays eggs and workers that supply food and maintain the nest. However, worker bees are able to reproduce in the absence of the queen. A variety of factors, including temperature, food, pheromones and social interactions, have an influence on ovarian development. Protein-rich diets are known to promote ovarian and egg development and, since the...

The stinging and guarding components of the defensive behavior of European, Africanized, hybrid, and backcross honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) were compared and analyzed at both colony and individual levels. Hybrid and Africanized backcross colonies stung as many times as Africanized ones. European backcross colonies stung more than European bees but not as many times as Africanized or Africanize...

We examined the possible role of hybridization in the invasion process of the African honeybee by testing two hypotheses regarding fluctuating asymmetry (FA), a measure of developmental stability, in wing characteristics: (1) FA should be higher in hybrid versus parental genotypes of African and European races; (2) FA should be lower in African bees compared to hybrid and European workers. Pare...

was the first to establish that the development of honeybee larvae to queen or worker is not due to genetic differences, but is regulated by the differential nourishment that the female larvae receive from the nurse bees. Queen larvae are nourished with royal jelly, a mixture of hypopharyngeal and mandibular gland secretions. In contrast, worker larvae are nourished with worker jelly formed at ...