Mechanisms of food provisioning of honeybee larvae by worker bees

Although it has clearly been demonstrated in previous studies that honeybees inspect their worker brood in a non-random fashion, it is still unclear which signals and cues worker bees use to monitor the nutritional state of their brood. Here we show that worker bees can recognize and quantify the la...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of experimental biology Vol. 212; no. Pt 7; pp. 1032 - 1035
Main Authors:	Heimken, Christina, Aumeier, Pia, Kirchner, Wolfgang H
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	England 01-04-2009
Subjects:	Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena - physiology Animals Bees - physiology Chromatography, Gas Conditioning, Classical Cues Feeding Behavior - physiology Hierarchy, Social Larva - chemistry Larva - physiology Pentanes - analysis Smell - physiology
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Although it has clearly been demonstrated in previous studies that honeybees inspect their worker brood in a non-random fashion, it is still unclear which signals and cues worker bees use to monitor the nutritional state of their brood. Here we show that worker bees can recognize and quantify the larval food present in a brood cell olfactorily and identify potential mechanical signals produced by the brood. There is no evidence for additional chemical hunger signals produced by the larvae. However, the pattern of movement of larvae within their cells changes with their nutritional state and might provide additional information to nurse bees.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0022-0949 1477-9145
DOI:	10.1242/jeb.022582