Hi all
there is plenty of evidence that dietary intake influences longevity and survival. Bees going into winter must restrict their consumption of amino acids if they are to survive the long haul

example:

Our data demonstrate four important findings: 

(1) adult worker honeybees prioritize their dietary intake of carbohydrates over EAAs (essential amino acids)
(2) nutritional requirements for EAAs are greater for young bees, but shift as they age and become foragers; 
(3) workers show reduced survival on diets high in EAAs, but no cost is associated with eating diets composed only of carbohydrates; and 
(4) the risk of death associated with consumption of diets high in EAAs is a function of age and caste. 

Previous studies of worker honeybee and ant nutrition also showed that workers die at a faster rate when they are forced to consume diets high in protein (Pirk et al. 2010 ; Dussutour and Simpson 2012 ). In our experiments, the foragers fed diets high in EAAs (1:10 and 1:5 diets) had much reduced survival because they were required to over-ingest EAA to obtain sufficient carbohydrates. Their premature mortality was not a function of a refusal to eat diets high in dietary EAA, indicating that consumption of the EAA was the cause of mortality.

Our data demonstrate that caste determines dietary needs of workers in the honeybee colony. Worker honeybees fail to survive if they do not consume sufficient dietary carbohydrates, and will over-ingest EAAs to obtain carbohydrate, even if it reduces their long-term survival.

Paoli, Pier P., et al. "Nutritional balance of essential amino acids and carbohydrates of the adult worker honeybee depends on age." Amino acids 46.6 (2014): 1449-1458.

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