>
> >It appears that calorie restriction extends life expectancy.  Research on
> a number of species indicate that a 30% decrease in intake has an effect.  I
> don't know that honeybees have been included


Hi Larry,

A similar effect in principle appears to work at the colony level, similarly
to the way that a starving mammal's fat cells act as a storehouse for any
excess energy.  The diutinus bees act as storehouses for protein for the
colony (in addition to any beebread reserves).

Scarcity of incoming pollen appears to initiate the effect.  However,
diutinus bees have well-developed fat bodies, which require a high intake of
calories, lipids, and protein.  So I'm not clear on the mechanism by which
overall colony food restriction translates into individual bees become
diutinus bees.

It may be as simple a stimulus as when broodrearing is restricted by lack of
pollen/nectar flow, that nurse bees that don't feed brood simply remain in
the high VG, low JH, heavy fat body state as storage vessels and long-lived
survivors until conditions improve.

It may well have something to do with the ethyl oleate feedback loop from
foragers.

In any case, it is an effective survival mechanism for the colony!

Randy Oliver

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