Honey Bee Workers That Are Pollen Stressed as Larvae Become Poor Foragers
and Waggle Dancers as Adults

. Hailey N. Scofield, 
. Heather R. Mattila 

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0121731


Abstract

The negative effects on adult behavior of juvenile undernourishment are well
documented in vertebrates, but relatively poorly understood in
invertebrates. We examined the effects of larval nutritional stress on the
foraging and recruitment behavior of an economically important model
invertebrate, the honey bee (Apis mellifera). Pollen, which supplies
essential nutrients to developing workers, can become limited in colonies
because of seasonal dearths, loss of foraging habitat, or intensive
management. However, the functional consequences of being reared by
pollen-stressed nestmates remain unclear, despite growing concern that poor
nutrition interacts with other stressors to exacerbate colony decline. We
manipulated nurse bees' access to pollen and then assessed differences in
weight, longevity, foraging activity, and waggle-dance behavior of the
workers that they reared (who were co-fostered as adults). Pollen stress
during larval development had far-reaching physical and behavioral effects
on adult workers. Workers reared in pollen-stressed colonies were lighter
and shorter lived than nestmates reared with adequate access to pollen.
Proportionally fewer stressed workers were observed foraging and those who
did forage started foraging sooner, foraged for fewer days, and were more
likely to die after only a single day of foraging. Pollen-stressed workers
were also less likely to waggle dance than their unstressed counterparts
and, if they danced, the information they conveyed about the location of
food was less precise. These performance deficits may escalate if long-term
pollen limitation prevents stressed foragers from providing sufficiently for
developing workers. Furthermore, the effects of brief pollen shortages
reported here mirror the effects of other environmental stressors that limit
worker access to nutrients, suggesting the likelihood of their synergistic
interaction. Honey bees often experience the level of stress that we
created, thus our findings underscore the importance of adequate nutrition
for supporting worker performance and their potential contribution to colony
productivity and quality pollination services.

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