Queen loss changes behavior and increases longevity in a stingless bee

Lopes, Bárbara dos Santos Conceição; Campbell, Alistair John; Contrera, Felipe Andrés León

doi:10.1007/s00265-020-2811-8

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Based on our recorded data, the loss of the queen occurred at about day 105 of E B1 and day 95 of dataset E B3 . According to Lopes et al [33], workers of queen-less colonies can live up to 80 days. This was similarly observed in our study which shows that the colony collapsed about 60-80 days after the queen disappeared (Figure 6a,b).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Honey Bee Colony Population Daily Loss Rate Forecasting and an Early Warning Method Using Temporal Convolutional Networks

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Rustia

Yang

et al. 2021

Sensors

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The population loss rate of a honey bee colony is a critical index to verify its health condition. Forecasting models for the population loss rate of a honey bee colony can be an essential tool in honey bee health management and pave away to early warning methods in the understanding of potential abnormalities affecting a honey bee colony. This work presents a forecasting and early warning algorithm for the population daily loss rate of honey bee colonies and determining warning levels based on the predictions. Honey bee colony population daily loss rate data were obtained through embedded image systems to automatically monitor in real-time the in-and-out activity of honey bees at hive entrances. A forecasting model was trained based on temporal convolutional neural networks (TCN) to predict the following day’s population loss rate. The forecasting model was optimized by conducting feature importance analysis, feature selection, and hyperparameter optimization. A warning level determination method using an isolation forest algorithm was applied to classify the population daily loss rate as normal or abnormal. The integrated algorithm was tested on two population loss rate datasets collected from multiple honey bee colonies in a honey bee farm. The test results show that the forecasting model can achieve a weighted mean average percentage error (WMAPE) of 17.1 ± 1.6%, while the warning level determination method reached 90.0 ± 8.5% accuracy. The forecasting model developed through this study can be used to facilitate efficient management of honey bee colonies and prevent colony collapse.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Honey Bee Colony Population Daily Loss Rate Forecasting and an Early Warning Method Using Temporal Convolutional Networks

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Rustia

Yang

et al. 2021

Sensors

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“…The same was true for unmated egg-laying workers of several species of ants and bumblebees. Though unmated hymenopteran workers typically produce only haploid male-destined offspring from unfertilized eggs, laying workers lived considerably longer than their non-laying nest-mates [35,[43][44][45][46].…”

Section: Effect Of Mating Reproductive Status and Taskmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Though trade-offs are often difficult to document in the field [47], careful lab experiments in a large number of non-social species have shown that reproduction may be associated with decreased longevity [48]. This appears to be also the case in experimental colonies of bumblebees, where only workers with a high intrinsic quality were able to overcome the costs associated with reproduction and therefore were both more fecund and longer-lived than their nest-mates [45]. Similarly, injuring queens of C. obscurior caused a temporary drop in fecundity, indicating a trade-off at least between reproductive efforts and immunity [49].…”

Section: Effect Of Mating Reproductive Status and Taskmentioning

confidence: 99%

The plasticity of lifespan in social insects

Heınze

Giehr

2021

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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One of the central questions of ageing research is why lifespans of organisms differ so tremendously among related taxa and, even more surprising, among members of the same species. Social insects provide a particularly pronounced example for this. Here, we review previously published information on lifespan plasticity in social insects and provide new data on worker lifespan in the ant Cardiocondyla obscurior , which because of its relatively short lifespan is a convenient model to study ageing. We show that individual lifespan may vary within species with several reproductive and social traits, such as egg-laying rate, queen number, task, colony size and colony composition. For example, in Cardiocondyla , highly fecund queens live longer than reproductively less active queens, and workers tend to live longer when transferred into a novel social environment or, as we show with new data, into small colonies. We hypothesize that this plasticity of lifespan serves to maximize the reproductive output of the colony as a whole and thus the inclusive fitness of all individuals. The underlying mechanisms that link the social environment or reproductive status with lifespan are currently unresolved. Several studies in honeybees and ants indicate an involvement of nutrient-sensing pathways, but the details appear to differ among species. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Ageing and sociality: why, when and how does sociality change ageing patterns?'

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“…As ant queens emit pheromones that indicate their presence and fecundity (Holman, 2018;Oliveira et al, 2020), worker reproduction under queenright conditions is rare (Bourke, 1988;Foitzik and Herbers, 2001). The onset of egg production in queenless workers has a strong impact on their physiology and immunity, as they become more resistant to oxidative stress, exhibit altered transcriptional activity in their brain and fat body, and often live longer than workers in queenright colonies (Kohlmeier et al, 2017;Lopes et al, 2020;Majoe et al, 2021;Negroni et al, 2021). Thus, worker fecundity seems to be a highly plastic trait, which is positively linked to lifespan (Heinze and Schrempf, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Queen number shapes worker longevity, fecundity and gene expression in the invasive, highly polygynous antTapinoma magnum

Lenhart,

Majoe,

Selvi

et al. 2024

Preprint

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In social animals, reproductive activity and ageing patterns are influenced by group composition. A well-documented phenomenon in monogynous (one-queen) insect societies is that queen presence affects worker fecundity and longevity. Little is known about whether and how workers respond to queen number variation in polygynous (multi-queen) species and how their queens age. We created queenless, one-queen, and two-queen colonies of the invasive, polygynous antTapinoma magnumto examine worker survival, fecundity, oxidative stress resistance, and fat body gene expression. Additionally, we compared fecundity and brain and fat body transcriptomes of young and old queens. Queenless workers experienced the highest mortality, contrasting with monogynous species where queen removal typically extends lifespan. Workers in single-queen colonies lived longer and were more fertile than in two-queen colonies. Queen number did not directly affect oxidative stress resistance or fat body transcription, though the latter depended on an interaction with worker task. Furthermore, younger nurses demonstrated higher fecundity, oxidative stress resistance and upregulated antioxidant genes compared to older foragers. Absent or minor shifts in fecundity and transcription with queen age, respectively, indicated physiological stability with age. Our research highlights distinct caste- and tissue-specific ageing patterns in this supercolonial species, deviating from typical monogynous ants.

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Queen loss changes behavior and increases longevity in a stingless bee

Cited by 9 publications

References 43 publications

Honey Bee Colony Population Daily Loss Rate Forecasting and an Early Warning Method Using Temporal Convolutional Networks

Honey Bee Colony Population Daily Loss Rate Forecasting and an Early Warning Method Using Temporal Convolutional Networks

The plasticity of lifespan in social insects

Queen number shapes worker longevity, fecundity and gene expression in the invasive, highly polygynous antTapinoma magnum

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