Task specific behavior of Indian honey bee (Apis cerana indica) workers

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The success of honey bees living in a colony is due to well-organized interaction among morphologically similar castes, the workers. Here, we investigated the behavior of marked worker bees (Apis cerana indica Fab.) after emergence. To have a distinct difference in behavior between early- and middle-adult bees, worker bees were divided into two groups: young-aged bees (YAB) and middle-aged bees (MAB). Four castes i.e., “cell cleaner”, “nurse bee” (YAB), “MAB”, and “forager bees” were identified in A. c. indica. Seventeen distinct behavioral tasks performed by the worker caste with advancing age were recorded. YAB were observed to be engaged in taking care of the brood, such as “capping”, “inspecting”, and “feeding the brood”, while MAB were observed to be engaged in “honey processing”, “building combs”, “guarding”, and other tasks. There were no significant differences in “inspecting cells” and “walking” between YAB and MAB. YAB were seen “In cell” comparatively higher on the combs. Tasks like “capping” are done only by YAB, while tasks like “head inside honey cells”, “building comb”, and “chewing wood” are performed by MAB. Except for a brief orientation flight, YAB never performed “guarding” or “foraging” outside the colony. Data indicated that MAB is also involved in feeding the broods. The transition from within-colony to outside-colony tasks was observed when workers were 18-20 days old. Additionally, worker bees performed a variety of duties concurrently on the same day. Thus, the worker caste of A. c. indica, which lacks physical difference, can organize and divide colony responsibilities.