Abstract
In the honeybee, diploid larvae fed with royal jelly develop into reproductive queens, whereas larvae fed with royal jelly for three days only and subsequently with honey and pollen develop into facultatively sterile workers. A recent study showed that worker larvae fed in a queenless colony develop into another female polyphenic form: rebel workers. These rebel workers are more queenlike and have greater reproductive potential than normal workers. However, it was unclear whether larvae orphaned at any time during their feeding period can develop into rebels. To answer this question, the anatomical features of newly emerged workers reared in queenless conditions at different ages during the larval period were evaluated. Our results showed that larvae orphaned during the final four or more days of their feeding life develop into rebel workers with more ovarioles in their ovaries, smaller hypopharyngeal glands, and larger mandibular and Dufour’s glands compared with typical workers with low reproductive potential that were reared with a queen or orphaned at the third to last or a later day of feeding life.
Highlights
An important topic in modern biology is how organisms modify their life strategy depending on the environmental conditions where they live or lived during a certain period of their life [1]
The post hoc Tukey HSD test showed that workers reared in the queenright condition and those reared in the queenless condition for the last 1, 2 or 3 days of the larval feeding period exhibited fewer ovarioles, larger hypopharyngeal glands and smaller mandibular and Dufour’s glands than the workers reared in queenless conditions for the last 4, 5 or 6 days of the larval period
Two ANOVAs with Tukey tests were performed using factor coordinates for the 35 groups of workers that were calculated in the principal component analysis (PCA)
Summary
An important topic in modern biology is how organisms modify their life strategy (including their physiology, morphology and anatomy) depending on the environmental conditions where they live or lived during a certain period of their life [1]. Of particular interest is how one genotype is able to produce two or more distinct phenotypes. This phenomenon, referred to as polyphenism, is widespread among many organisms [2,3,4]. Polyphenism is the major reason for the success of insects [4], as it allows them to partition life history stages from the larva and pupa to the adult stage and to adopt different phenotypes during seasonal environmental conditions or upon unpredictable environmental changes, e.g., degradation due to overcrowding. The most familiar and spectacular examples of polyphenism, based primarily on the reproductive division of labour, are provided by eusocial insects [5].
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