Abstract
Care of offspring is a form of affiliative behavior that is fundamental to studies of animal social behavior. Insects do not figure prominently in this topic because Drosophila melanogaster and other traditional models show little if any paternal or maternal care. However, the eusocial honey bee exhibits cooperative brood care with larvae receiving intense and continuous care from their adult sisters, but this behavior has not been well studied because a robust quantitative assay does not exist. We present a new laboratory assay that enables quantification of group or individual honey bee brood “nursing behavior” toward a queen larva. In addition to validating the assay, we used it to examine the influence of the age of the larva and the genetic background of the adult bees on nursing performance. This new assay also can be used in the future for mechanistic analyses of eusociality and comparative analyses of affilative behavior with other animals.
Highlights
The care of offspring is a fundamental component of social behavior
We developed a new laboratory assay that enables us to track the nursing behavior of individual bees as they function in small groups
We present a new laboratory behavioral assay to study honey bee nursing behavior
Summary
The care of offspring is a fundamental component of social behavior. The most widespread forms of this behavior involve maternal and paternal behaviors that contribute to the defense and sustenance of offspring who would otherwise perish. Offspring care has been well studied from both proximate and ultimate perspectives in vertebrates, especially birds and rodents, and is one of the best understood forms of affiliative behavior [1]. Offspring care is central to systems of eusociality, but it is usually provided cooperatively by older siblings, rather than by a parent. As in vertebrate parental care, sibling care involves high frequencies of interaction and more-or-less continuous “progressive” feeding.
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