Honey bees reared in isolation adhere to normal age-related division of labor when reintroduced into a colony

Abstract

Early social experiences during developmental life stages have been demonstrated to influence adult behavior in vertebrates and invertebrates. However, cooperative behaviors observed in social insects are often regarded as simple instinctual responses to positive and negative feedback. Here we test if rearing environment influences the resulting adult bee’s somewhat predictable progression through a series of age-related tasks (temporal polyethism). Honey bee larvae were reared either in their parental colony, or artificially in the laboratory. Newly emerged adults were individually identified and introduced into a single observation hive where their behavior was observed three times a day for 28 days. In vitro-reared bees were observed engaging in every behavior in which colony-reared bees engaged including: attending the queen, manipulating wax comb, defending the hive entrance, and foraging. Moreover, in vitro-reared bees appeared to be responding appropriately to colony-level cues that coordinate task allocation within age-related polyethism. However, in vitro-reared bees did suffer detectably reduced lifespans. Further research, potentially incorporating methods such as establishing colonies composed exclusively of in vitro-reared bees, would offer additional insight into the plasticity of honey bee behaviors.