Adam J. Siegel, M. Kim Fondrk, and Robert E. Page. School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 874601, Tempe, AZ 85287-4601
As honeybee workers age, they pass though a progression of tasks, beginning with tasks in the hive and culminating in foraging outside the hive. Past studies have shown that genetically distinct strains of honey bees, selected for quantities of surplus stored pollen, differ in the age at which they initiate foraging, but nothing is known about their pre-foraging behavior. There is also little evidence for genetic effects on variation in timing of task transitions of pre-foraging workers. We used observation hives to study within nest task performance of bees derived from an artificial selection program. We demonstrate that workers of the high and low pollen hoarding strains initiate many in-hive tasks at different ages, and that workers of the high pollen-hoarding strain forage earlier in life. The strains exhibited little difference in the proportion of pre-foraging time spent on each in-hive task. Our evidence suggests that the entire age polyethism schedule has been shifted earlier in the high pollen-hoarding strain because these bees transition between tasks at a faster rate.
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