> Developing larvae experience a period of acute starvation:

It would be far more accurate to say that  IF larvae are ARTIFCIALLY subjected to acute starvation, THEN specific differences are found in their behavior from normal WELL-FED larvae.

Quoting the article:

"Whether a developing larva will become a queen or worker depends on the DIET SHE RECEIVES (Winston, 1987) [2]." (capitals added)

"Female honeybee larvae are reproductively totipotent (they can develop into either a queen or a worker) for their first 3–4 days of age (Weaver, 1957 [1] ). After this point, worker‐destined larvae can no longer develop into viable queens (Winston, 1987 [2])."

What happened here is that some of larvae in the study were subjected to artificial "starvation", a condition not encountered by the typical worker larvae (quoting again):

"Nurse bees were removed from the frame, and then, a wire push‐in cage was placed over half of the larvae, preventing nurses from feeding or in any way caring for them. The other half of the larvae were left uncovered, so nurses could feed and care for them..."

So the nurse bees could feed the "control" larvae, while the push-in cages kept them from feeding the "starved" larvae.  Clearly, this is not the usual state of affairs for a larvae.

But the paper does not state that all developing larvae experience any general period of "acute starvation" (unless you keep the nurse bees away with a push-in cage, as was done in the study).



[1] Weaver, N. (1957). Effects of larval age on dimorphic differentiation of the female honey bee. Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 50(3), 283–294. https://doi.org/10.1093/aesa/50.3.283

[2] Winston, M. L. (1987). The biology of the honey bee. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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