Effects of Long Distance Transportation on Honey Bee Physiology

Kiheung Ahn,Joseph Riddle,Jeff Pettis,Zachary Y Huang,Xianbing Xie

doi:10.1155/2012/193029

Abstract

Despite the requirement of long distance transportation of honey bees used for pollination, we understand little how transportation affects honey bees. Three trials in three different states (CA, GA, and MI) were conducted to study the effects of long distance transportation on honey bee physiology. Newly emerged bees from one colony were split into two groups and introduced into a transported (T) colony or a stationary (S) colony in each trial. Volumes of hypopharyngeal gland acini in T colonies were significantly smaller than S colonies in all three trials. There were no significant differences between S and T colonies in juvenile hormone titers. Protein content in head showed no significant differences between S and T either in 7-day-old or 17-day-old bees of MI trial, but GA trial showed a significant reduction in bees experiencing transportation. Protein content in thorax was only measured in GA trial and was not significantly different between the two groups. Lipid content in abdomen was not significantly different between the S and T colonies in all three trials. This study suggests that bees experiencing transportation have trouble fully developing their food glands and this might affect their ability to nurse the next generation of workers.

Highlights

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are perhaps the most important insects to humans due to their pollination service provided to agriculture [1]
Honey bees experience many different types of stresses. They are impacted by parasitic mites such as Varroa destructor and Acarapis woodi [2], microsporidian pathogens such as Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae [3], hundreds of pesticides applied in crops and brought back by foragers [4], as well as pesticides beekeepers applied inside the colonies [5]
There were no significant differences between the S and T groups, when all 11 colony-pairs were analyzed together by ANOVA, colony-pairs 2 and 10 showed differences in juvenile hormone (JH) titers when analyzed as two separate single colony-pairs (Figure 1(a))

Summary

Introduction

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are perhaps the most important insects to humans due to their pollination service provided to agriculture [1]. Honey bees experience many different types of stresses They are impacted by parasitic mites such as Varroa destructor and Acarapis woodi [2], microsporidian pathogens such as Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae [3], hundreds of pesticides applied in crops and brought back by foragers [4], as well as pesticides beekeepers applied inside the colonies [5]. Besides these stresses, perhaps the strongest stress experienced by honey bees is long distance transportation. We understand little of the effects of the long distance transportation on bees because no studies have ever been conducted to determine the physiological or behavioral changes induced by such stress

Methods

Results

Conclusion