Developing larvae experience a period of acute starvation:

1. Animal nutritional state can profoundly affect behaviour, including an individual’s
tendency to cooperate with others. We investigated how nutritional restriction at
different life stages affects cooperative behaviour in a highly social species, Apis
mellifera honeybees.

2. We found that nutritional restriction affects a worker’s queen pheromone response,
a behavioural indicator of investment in group vs. individual reproduction.
Nutritional restriction at the larval stage led to reduced ovary size and increased
queen pheromone response, whereas nutritional restriction at the adult stage led
to reduced lipid stores and reduced queen pheromone response.

When developing larvae experience a period of acute starvation, 
they become more responsive to queen pheromone later
in life no matter their adult diet. Interestingly, adult nutritional stress
had the opposite effect on behaviour.

Walton, A., Dolezal, A. G., Bakken, M. A., & Toth, A. L. (2018). Hungry for the queen: Honeybee nutritional environment affects worker pheromone response in a life stage‐dependent manner. Functional Ecology, 32(12), 2699-2706.

PLB

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