Pete, the dietary restriction hypothesis is certainly of interest.
However, workers go into the diutinus state even in hives loaded with
beebread and honey, which does not appear to support the hypothesis. 

¶

Of course, a hive going into a dearth must be provisioned. But it appears that the hive bees restrict their intake of food, in order to make it last as long as possible, until the next flow period. Or in the case of tropical bees, they abscond and obviously take little or nothing with them. 

Conversely, during a nectar and pollen flow, presumably everybody is getting as much food as they can possibly eat. That's why I suggest that the cessation of incoming food may be the trigger to go into dietary restriction mode (like going on a diet after Christmas) -- which in turn may be an epigenetic switch which puts the individual bee into long life mode. 

Again, it would be beneficial to absconding bees to be able to live long and to migrate to better pastures, or wait out a dearth, on very little food. But probing more deeply, there may be pheromonal control of food consumption as well, depending on both the external and internal conditions of the colony, as well as the laying state of the queen.

PLB

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