Apis mellifera cuticular chemistry in a foraging context

MARÍA SOL BALBUENA; ANDRÉS GONZÁLEZ; WALTER M FARINA

Congreso; ISCE; 2014

When a honeybee (Apis mellifera) collects nectar with high sucrose concentration, it returns to the hive and dances vigorously to communicate the discovered food source. During this conspicuous display its body temperature rises, promoting the release of certain cuticular hydrocarbons (CHs) that have been postulated as a relevant stimulus for the inactive foragers . A rise in body temperature also occurs upon nectar collection, and is affected by the food source profitability . Our aim is to study CHs during the entire foraging cycle of honeybees under different food quality contexts, both outside (feeding site, hive entrance) and inside the hive (during dance and food exchange). We present quantitative variations of 48 CHs in foragers fed at an artificial feeder that offered low (0.5M) or high (2M) sucrose concentration. Hive bees or foragers captured in empty feeders served as controls. The bees were sacrificed using CO2 and the CHs were extracted in dichloromethane and analyzed by GC-MS. Using multivariate analysis, we found significant differences in CHs of hive and forager bees, but not among forager bees. Analyses of CHs during the remaining phases of the foraging cycle are underway, and will be presented as preliminary results. Differences in CHs of honeybees exploiting food sources that differ in profitability would suggest a modulation in the release of chemical cues associated to differential recruitment.