Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Eggs
Eggs
High
Low
Colony
Colony
Nursery
High Bees
Low Bees
WT Colony
Figure 4.5.
A common-garden experiment. High- and low-strain queens laid
eggs in frames in their own hives. h e frames were then removed and placed in
an unrelated nursery colony where they were cared for at the same time by nurse
bees that were unrelated to them. Combs were removed from the nursery colony
before adult bees emerged and were placed in an incubator. When the adult bees
emerged, they were marked with paint or individually tagged with numbered
plastic disks and placed in a common wild-type colony to study their behavior.
dishes is a messy operation for bees. h e bees scatter pollen outside the
dish, which makes it impossible to get reliable weights without actually
collecting the bees. h is would disrupt their foraging behavior and
might have long-term ef ects on foraging frequency.
As expected, some low-pollen-hoarding-strain workers collected
pollen, and some high-pollen-hoarding-strain (high strain) workers
collected nectar. However, the performance of foraging tasks varied
with genotype. Low-pollen-strain (low strain) nectar specialists made
more frequent foraging trips for nectar than did high-pollen-strain
nectar specialists and carried larger nectar loads. High-pollen-
hoarding-strain specialists made more pollen-foraging trips. Jenni-
fer Fewell and I previously showed that pollen loads collected by
