Liquid food distribution and its relation to food quality in honeybee (Apis mellifera) colonies

GRÜTER, CHRISTOPH; FARINA, WALTER M

Washington, USA

Congreso; IUSSI 2006 Congress; 2006

International Union for the Study of Social Insects

In honeybees (Apis mellifera), the process of nectar collection is considered a straightforward example of task partitioning with two subtasks or two intersecting cycles of activity: foraging and storing of nectar, linked via the transfer of nectar between foragers and food processors. However, many observations suggest that nectar collection and processing in honeybees is a complex process, involving workers of other sub-castes and depending on variables such as resource profitability or the amount of stored honey. It has been observed that food processor bees often distribute food to other hive bees after receiving it from foragers, instead of storing it immediately in honey cells. There is little information about the sub-caste affiliation and the behavior of these second-order receivers. Therefore, we investigated the identity of the second-order receivers, quantified behaviors following nectar transfer and compared their behavior with the behavior of average worker bees. Furthermore, we tested whether food quality affects the behavior of the second-order receivers as it has been described for foragers and receivers. We found that 59.3 % of the identified bees performed nurse duties, 18.5% performed food processor duties and 22.2% performed forager duties. These bees were more active, had more trophallaxes (especially giving contacts) and were found in other hive areas than average workers, independently of food quality. Our results show that the liquid food can be distributed rapidly among many bees of the three main worker sub-castes, without being stored in honey cells first.  Furthermore, the results suggest that the rapid distribution of food partly depends on the high activity of second-order receivers.