Honey bee life cycle
Genetic Factor? Honey Bee Life Spans 50% Shorter Now Compared to 50 Years Ago
A decline in longevity for honey bees housed in laboratories may
be the cause of recent colony losses and decreased honey production.
According
to a recent study by entomologists at the University of Maryland, the longevity
of individual honey bees kept in a controlled laboratory environment is now 50%
shorter than it was in the 1970s. Scientists' simulations of the impact of
today's shorter lifespans matched the trends in decreased honey production and
higher colony loss observed by American beekeepers in recent decades.
The natural aging and death of bee colonies makes colony
turnover a recognized aspect of the beekeeping industry. However, during the
past ten years, American beekeepers have reported high loss rates, which have
necessitated the replacement of more colonies in order to maintain operations.
Researchers have concentrated on pesticide exposure, environmental stresses,
parasites, illnesses, and nutrition in an effort to comprehend why. Honey bee life cycle
The
fact that this study is the first to document a general loss in honey bee
longevity that may be unrelated to environmental stressors suggests that
genetics may be playing a role in the general trends observed in the beekeeping
sector. Today, November 14, 2022, the study will be released in the journal
Scientific Reports. honey bee life cycle pdf
Research from the University of Maryland indicates that caged bees live shorter lives than they did 50 years ago, despite higher standards for lab beekeeping. This suggests that something other than environmental factors may be to blame for commercial beekeepers' higher rates of honey bee colony loss. Credit: UMD /Anthony Nearman
Anthony
Nearman, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Entomology and the study's
primary author, explained that because bees are isolated from colony life just
before they become adults, whatever is shortening their lifetime is occurring
before that. The concept of a genetic component is introduced in this. If this
theory is accurate, it also suggests a potential answer. Maybe we can breed for
honey bees with longer lifespans if we can isolate some genetic elements. Honey bee life cycle honey bee life cycle days
While
working with associate professor of entomology Dennis van Engelsdorp on a study
on standardized procedures for growing adult bees in the lab, Nearman first
became aware of the drop in lifespan. The researchers gathered honey bee pupae
from hives within 24 hours of them emerging from the wax cells they are raised
in, replicating past investigations. The gathered bees were raised to adulthood
in an incubator and housed in special cages. honey bee life cycle timeline
When
Nearman found that, regardless of diet, the median lifetime of his caged bees
was half that of caged bees in comparable trials in the 1970s, he began investigating
the effects of supplementing the caged bees' sugar water diet with plain water
to better replicate natural conditions. 17.7 days as opposed to 34.3 days
during the 1970s. This led to a more thorough evaluation of laboratory research
that were published throughout the previous 50 years. queen bee life cycle
"I
discovered there's actually this huge time effect going on when I plotted the
lifespans over time," Nearman said. You would think that lifespans would
be longer or unchanged because we're getting better at this because
standardized protocols for rearing honey bees in the lab weren't really
formalized until the 2000s, right? Instead, we observed a mortality rate that
had doubled.
Despite
the fact that a colony and a laboratory are very different environments, historical
records of lab-kept bees suggest that they have a similar lifespan to colony
bees. Additionally, scientists typically assume that isolated factors that
shorten lifespan in one environment will also shorten it in another. Shorter
honey bee lifespans in the real world were also linked to less time spent
foraging and lower honey production, according to earlier studies. This
research is the first to link those variables to colony turnover rates. life cycle of a bee
The resulting loss rates were around 33% when the team assessed
the impact of a 50% reduction in longevity on a beekeeping enterprise, where
lost colonies are rebuilt annually. This is quite similar to the 30% and 40%
average yearly and overwinter loss rates recorded by beekeepers over the
previous 14 years
Nearman
and vanEngelsdorp highlighted that the larval period, when the bees are
brooding in the hive and being fed by worker bees, may be when the lab-kept
bees are exposed to some form of low-level viral contamination or pesticide
exposure. However, the bees have not manifested overt signs of such exposures,
while fruit flies and other insects have demonstrated evidence of a genetic
component to lifespan. Honey bee life cycle
The researchers' next steps will be to compare patterns in honey bee lifespans across the United States and in other nations. They can isolate and compare potential contributing factors like genetics, pesticide use, and the presence of viruses in the local bee stocks if they discover differences in longevity. life cycle of a bee (for kids)