6.1 Function and behavior Of Workers Flashcards
What are the 4 temporal castes of workers
- Cell cleaners - cell capping and cleaning
- Nurse bees - Brood and Queen tending
- Middle aged bees - Comb building, cleaning, food handling
- Foragers - outside tasks
Describe the process of worker ontogeny
There is general progression but flexibility, variability and overlap in tasks
Do all workers perform all tasks
No - the jobs they do depend on the state of the colony
What is the difference between Division of Labour and Task Allocation
Division of Labour = the stable differences in worker task choice which depends on developmentally controlled physiological mechanisms
Task allocation - the problem of how a colony allocates its resources
What age is the task of Cell preparation performed?
2 - 16 days
What does a bee do during the cell preparation role?
She will polish cells from the back to the front. Remove cocoon remains and excretion. Cover cell walls in thin layer of wax
What age do workers perform capping cells?
3 - 10 days
What do bees do during the Capping cell phase?
Secrete small amounts of wax due to less developed wax glands. Cap larval cells or ripe honey
What age do the workers feed larvae?
3 - 15 days
What does a worker do during the Feeding larvae stage?
She visits larval cells and determines if they need food. A single bee rears 2-3 larvae during her life. She can change the concentration of secretions.
What age do workers carry out the role of tending the queen?
3 - 14 days
What do workers do during the tending the queen role?
They lick her and examine her with their antennae.
Groom and feed her. She is fed every 20-30 minutes for about 2 mins per feeding.
Spread pheromone as part of the retinue.
What age do the workers perform the Food processing role?
10 - 20 days
What do bees do during the food processing role?
They receive, ripen and deposit nectar in cells.
They wait near the entrance where foragers return.
What age do workers take part in the Cleaning debris role?
11 - 15 days
What do workers do during the cleaning debris role
They remove mouldy pollen, old cell cappings, dead brood. Detect diseased brood.
What do workers do during the Handling pollen role?
They will pack the pollen into cells after it has been deposited
What age do workers carry out the handling pollen role
10 - 19 days
What age do workers carry out the comb building role
12 - 23 days
What do workers do during the comb building role?
Secrete wax scales and consutrct comb
What do workers do during the cell cleaning role?
Prepare cells for use
What age do workers carry out cell cleaning?
11 - 25 days
What age do workers carry out the role of ventilating the nest?
2 - 25 days
What age do workers perfom guard duty
15 - 28 days
What does a bee do during the guard duty role
Only guard a few hours at a time. Not everyone takes part as a guard
What age do the bees take their first orientation flights as part of temporal polyethism
17 - 27
What order do the jobs described by Jamie Ellis go in
Cell preperation > Capping brood > Feeding larvae > Tending the queen > Food procesors > Cleaning Debris > Handling pollen > Comb building > Cell Cleaning > Ventilating the nest > Guard Duty > Orientation flights > Foraging Flights
What cannot recently emerged bees do?
Fly, sting or produce many glandualr secretions
When do the bees wax and hypophangeal glands peak in secretions?
5 - 15 days
When do saliva glands peak?
15 - 25 days
What is the beneift of the Middle aged bees>
They are a pool of workers that can be called upon to do additional jobs.
Where do bees aged 3 - 15 days old congregate
In the brood nest.
Other than the main jobs, what else do workers do?
Resting is useful for metabolosing products and patrolling helps to sense the hive environment. They will also sleep but dpending on their age this occurs at different times.
How does Ethyl oleate effect temoral polytheisim?
It is produced in the honey crop epithelium as nectar ferments. It is exuded to exoskeletong where it transmits to other bees. When there are lots of older workers present this secretion inhibits their development so that when there are fewer foragers, young bees develop into foragers quciker.
What happens in the spring to the old worker bees?
They may have to perfom brood rearing tasks and that is why they require well developed hypophangeal glands.
As the old winter bees die off, what may the young new bees have to perfom?
Precocious foraging as they are not yet developed to be fully formed foragers
What does the hypophrangeal gland do as the worker ages
It decreases in size and switches from brood food production to producing sucrase and glucose oxidase to help with food processing
How can pollen consumption effect temporal polyethisim?
Pollen consumption fuels the fat bodies t produce vitellogenin. High Vg inhibts JH production so as their pollen consumption lowers, the ageing process continues.
