HONEYBEE COLONIES INCREASE THE DIVERSITY OF COLLECTED POLLENS AFTER EXPERIENCING DETERRENT-ADULTERATED POLLEN INSIDE THE NEST

ROCÍO LAJAD; ANDRÉS ARENAS

Congreso; Animal Behaviour Live: Annual Online Conference 2022; 2022

ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR LIVE

Pollen is essential for the optimal development of honeybee Apis mellifera colonies. Forager bees do not consume fresh pollen at the floral sources but transport it to the nest. Once there, young bees process pollen into the easily digestible bee bread. Because pollens differ in quality for the bees, we hypothesized that adjustment of pollen selection requires the resource to be processed within the nest. In dual choice experiments with colonies confined inside flying cages, foragers change their preferences after in-hive experiences with pollens whose suitability was reduced by the addition of amygdalin (0.1 M), a deterrent present in almond pollen that causes malaise after ingestion in bees. Here, we study whether such a change in foraging preferences can also be observed in a multiple choice natural context. To this aim, we compared colony foraging preferences by means of the composition of pollen samples trapped at the entrance of the hives. Samples were taken before and after the offering of amygdalin adulterated pollen from one of the dominant flowering plants in the field (D. tenuifolia) to a first group of colonies. We included a second group of colonies that were fed unadulterated D. tenuifolia pollen to control the effect of the amygdalin and a third group where no pollen was offered to control the effect of the feeding. Our results showed that pollen samples from treated colonies were more diverse than in the controls (estimated by Shannon´s H-index), suggesting that experiences with an unsuitable highly available pollen biased foraging towards pollens from new sources.