Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
behavior. High-strain bees that had been deprived of a social environ-
ment were still more likely to collect pollen than were low-strain bees
that had been deprived or not deprived. h is showed that the genotypes
of the bees constrained them from environmental canalization of their
foraging behavior.
Stored pollen acts as an inhibitor of pollen foraging; young larvae
stimulate pollen foraging. We can manipulate the stimulus environ-
ment of hives by varying these two hive components. A colony with
more stored pollen and less brood collects less pollen than a compara-
ble colony that has been manipulated to have less stored pollen and
more young larvae. Tanya Pankiw set up colonies that were manipu-
lated to have a high-pollen-foraging-stimulus environment and paired
them with colonies that had a low-pollen-foraging-stimulus environ-
ment. She placed marked, same-aged groups of bees derived from the
high- and low-pollen-hoarding strains of Page and Fondrk (Chapter 5)
and waited for them to forage. When they foraged, she collected them
and weighed their nectar and pollen loads. She found that high-strain
bees were more likely to collect larger loads of pollen and smaller loads
of nectar than were low-strain bees, regardless of the hive's stimulus
environment, and both strains collected more pollen under the high
stimulus. High- and low-strain genotypes responded equally to changes
in the pollen-foraging stimuli, but behavioral dif erences were main-
tained across all tested environments because of the constraints placed
on behavior by the genotypes of the bees.
3.9 Laying- Worker Behavior
h e ovaries of a worker honey bee will develop in the absence of the
queen and larvae. Both produce pheromones that suppress ovary devel-
opment and egg-laying behavior. At er the queen dies, bees attempt to
raise a new queen from larvae. h ey get just one opportunity over a
very few days to select larvae, begin feeding them in excess to trigger
the alternative developmental programs that produce queens rather
than workers, and raise one successfully to maturity. If they fail, they
become hopelessly queenless, and the colony begins its development
