“Entombed Pollen”: A new condition in honey bee colonies associated with increased risk of colony mortality

vanEngelsdorp, Dennis; Evans, Jay D.; Donovall, Leo R.; Mullin, Christopher A.; Frazier, Maryann; Frazier, James L.; Tarpy, David R.; Hayes, Jeffrey A.; Pettis, Jeffery S.

doi:10.1016/j.jip.2009.03.008

Cited by 75 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…This would be an effective way to prevent all the honey from being contaminated and it would reduce widespread toxin contamination in the hive and thus help prevent bee losses. [63] also suggests that honeybees store pollen with high levels of chlorothalonil separately in entombed cells which might be a phenomenon similar to the honey storage pattern behaviour shown in this experiment. In addition, there are plants in several genera from at least 11 families [64,65] that naturally produce nectars which contain constituents that have varying degrees of toxicity to bees (and humans) and there are plants that produce toxic pollen [66,67].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Sugar concentration influences decision making in <i>Apis mellifera</i> L. workers during early-stage honey storage behaviour

Greco¹,

Lang²,

Gallmann³

et al. 2013

OJAS

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Decision making in honeybees is based on information which is acquired and processed in order to make choices between two or more alternatives. These choices lead to the expression of optimal behaviour strategies such as floral constancy. Optimal foraging strategies such as floral constancy improve a colony's chances of survival, however to our knowledge, there has been no research on decision making based on optimal storage strategies. Here we show, using diagnostic radioentomology, that decision making in storer bees is influenced by nectar sugar concentrations and that, within 48 hours of collection, honeybees workers store carbohydrates in groups of cells with similar sugar concentrations in a nonrandom way. This behaviour, as evidenced by patchy spatial cell distributions, would help to hasten the ripening process by reducing the distance between cells of similar sugar concentrations. Thus, colonies which exhibit optimal storage strategies such as these would have an evolutionary advantage and improve colony survival expectations over less efficient colonies and it should be plausible to select colonies that exhibit these preferred traits.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Sugar concentration influences decision making in <i>Apis mellifera</i> L. workers during early-stage honey storage behaviour

Greco¹,

Lang²,

Gallmann³

et al. 2013

OJAS

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“…These studies also imply that N. ceranae is the cause for the unusual colony losses reported from several regions in Europe and in the United States (28,29,37). Other studies rather question a link between N. ceranae infections and increased colony mortality or identify other causes for unusual colony losses (11,12,15,32,44,45). The results of our study also failed to reveal a relation between N. ceranae infection of colonies and colony mortality, even in seasons with unusually high colony loss rates.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 72%

Five-Year Cohort Study of Nosema spp. in Germany: Does Climate Shape Virulence and Assertiveness of Nosema ceranae ?

Gisder

Hedtke

Möckel

et al. 2010

Appl Environ Microbiol

210

265

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Nosema ceranae and Nosema apis are two fungal pathogens belonging to the phylum Microsporidia and infecting the European honeybee, Apis mellifera. Recent studies have suggested that N. ceranae is more virulent than N. apis both at the individual insect level and at the colony level. Severe colony losses could be attributed to N. ceranae infections, and an unusual form of nosemosis is caused by this pathogen. In the present study, data from a 5-year cohort study of the prevalence of Nosema spp. in Germany, involving about 220 honeybee colonies and a total of 1,997 samples collected from these colonies each spring and autumn and analyzed via species-specific PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), are described. Statistical analysis of the data revealed no relation between colony mortality and detectable levels of infection with N. ceranae or N. apis. In addition, N. apis is still more prevalent than N. ceranae in the cohort of the German bee population that was analyzed. A possible explanation for these findings could be the marked decrease in spore germination that was observed after even a short exposure to low temperatures (؉4°C) for N. ceranae only. Reduced or inhibited N. ceranae spore germination at low temperatures should hamper the infectivity and spread of this pathogen in climatic regions characterized by a rather cold winter season.

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“…Under such an absence of preservation, the chemical composition of stored pollen may change and render the pollen unsuitable for consumption. Eventually, bees may respond to suboptimal stored pollen by entombing the degraded food cell with propolis [49]. …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Honey bees preferentially consume freshly-stored pollen

et al. 2017

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Honey bees (Apis mellifera) collect and store both honey and pollen in preserved forms. Pollen storage involves the addition of honey or nectar and oral secretions to pollen granules. It is controversial whether the duration of pollen storage alters the palatability or nutritive value of the pollen storage medium. We examined how bees utilize different-aged stored pollen during an extended pollen flow. The deposition of pollen into wax cells and subsequent consumption were monitored daily on 18 brood frames from 6 colonies over an 8d observation period. Despite a greater abundance of older stored pollen cells on brood frames, bees showed a marked preference for the consumption of freshly-stored pollen. Two to four day-old pollen cell contents were significantly more likely to be consumed, while pollen cell contents more than seven days old were eaten at much lower rates. Similar experiments that controlled for cell abundance and spatial effects using cage assays yielded the same result. One day-old stored pollen was consumed approximately three times more often than 10d-old stored pollen, and two times more often than 5d-old stored pollen. These consumption preferences for freshly-stored pollen occurred despite a lack of clear developmental advantages. Young adult workers reared for 7 days on 1d-, 5d-, or 10d-old stored pollen showed no difference in body mass, stored pollen consumption, hindgut fecal material accumulation, or hypopharyngeal gland (HPG) protein titers, suggesting that different-aged pollen stores did not vary in their nutritional value to adult bees. These findings are inconsistent with the hypothesis promoting a period of microbially-mediated, “beebread maturation” that results in greater palatability or nutritive value for aged pollen stores. Rather, stored pollen that is not eaten in the first few days accumulates as excess stores preserved in a less preferred, but nutritionally-similar state.

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“Entombed Pollen”: A new condition in honey bee colonies associated with increased risk of colony mortality

Cited by 75 publications

References 5 publications

Sugar concentration influences decision making in <i>Apis mellifera</i> L. workers during early-stage honey storage behaviour

Sugar concentration influences decision making in <i>Apis mellifera</i> L. workers during early-stage honey storage behaviour

Five-Year Cohort Study of Nosema spp. in Germany: Does Climate Shape Virulence and Assertiveness of Nosema ceranae ?

Honey bees preferentially consume freshly-stored pollen

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“Entombed Pollen”: A new condition in honey bee colonies associated with increased risk of colony mortality

Cited by 75 publications

References 5 publications

Sugar concentration influences decision making in &lt;i&gt;Apis mellifera&lt;/i&gt; L. workers during early-stage honey storage behaviour

Sugar concentration influences decision making in &lt;i&gt;Apis mellifera&lt;/i&gt; L. workers during early-stage honey storage behaviour

Five-Year Cohort Study of Nosema spp. in Germany: Does Climate Shape Virulence and Assertiveness of Nosema ceranae ?

Honey bees preferentially consume freshly-stored pollen

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Product

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Sugar concentration influences decision making in <i>Apis mellifera</i> L. workers during early-stage honey storage behaviour

Sugar concentration influences decision making in <i>Apis mellifera</i> L. workers during early-stage honey storage behaviour