Within-Colony Variation in the Immunocompetency of Managed and Feral Honey Bees (Apis mellifera L.) in Different Urban Landscapes.

R Appler,David Tarpy,Steven Frank

doi:10.3390/insects6040912

Abstract

Urbanization has the potential to dramatically affect insect populations worldwide, although its effects on pollinator populations are just beginning to be understood. We compared the immunocompetency of honey bees sampled from feral (wild-living) and managed (beekeeper-owned) honey bee colonies. We sampled foragers from feral and managed colonies in rural, suburban, and urban landscapes in and around Raleigh, NC, USA. We then analyzed adult workers using two standard bioassays for insect immune function (encapsulation response and phenoloxidase activity). We found that there was far more variation within colonies for encapsulation response or phenoloxidase activity than among rural to urban landscapes, and we did not observe any significant difference in immune response between feral and managed bees. These findings suggest that social pollinators, like honey bees, may be sufficiently robust or variable in their immune responses to obscure any subtle effects of urbanization. Additional studies of immune physiology and disease ecology of social and solitary bees in urban, suburban, and natural ecosystems will provide insights into the relative effects of changing urban environments on several important factors that influence pollinator productivity and health.

Highlights

Behavioral flexibility and division of labor are often accredited to the extreme ecological success of social insects [1]
We measured the immunocompetence of honey bees in areas with different levels of urbanization
We characterized urbanization through measurements of the average relative heat and impervious surface that bees may experience within their foraging range

Summary

Introduction

Behavioral flexibility and division of labor are often accredited to the extreme ecological success of social insects [1]. This “social physiology” often involves high variability of worker phenotypes within colonies that enable them to be buffered from perturbations in the local environment [2]. A suite of individual-level immune responses, including encapsulation and phenoloxidase activity, are important for insect health and have been well elucidated in honey bees (e.g., [8,9]). The high intra-colony genetic diversity in honey bees is mirrored by the high variation in physiological immunity at the colony level [17]

Methods

Results

Conclusion