A Method to Study Honey Bee Foraging Regulatory Molecules at Different Times During Foraging

The foraging of honey bees is one of the most well-organized and admirable behaviors that exist among social insects. In behavioral studies, these beautiful insects have been extensively used for understanding time–space learning, landmark use, and the concept of learning. Highly organized behaviors such as social interaction and communication are systematically well-organized behavioral components of honey bee foraging. Over the last two decades, understanding the regulatory mechanisms underlying honey bee foraging at the cellular and molecular levels has been increasingly interested to several researchers. Upon the search of regulatory genes of brain and behavior, immediate early (IE) genes are considered as a good tool to begin the search investigation. Our two recent studies have demonstrated three IE genes, namely, Egr-1, Hr38, and Kakusei, playing a role in the daily foraging of bees and their association with learning and memory during foraging. These studies further evidence that IE genes can be used as a tool in finding the specific molecular/cellular players of foraging in honey bees and its behavioral components such as learning, memory, social interaction, and social communication. In this article, we provide the details of the method of sample collection at different times during foraging to investigate the foraging regulatory molecules.

Environment dependent benefits of individual differences in the recruitment behaviour of honey bees

Inter-individual differences in behaviour within the members of a social group can affect the group's productivity. In eusocial insects, individual differences amongst workers in a colony play a central role division of labour and task allocation. Extensive empirical and theoretical work has highlighted variation in response thresholds as a proximate mechanism underlying individual behavioural differences and hence division of labour. However, other response parameters, like response probability and intensity, can affect these differences. In this study, we first extended a previously published agent-based model on honey bee foraging to understand the relative importance of response (dance) probability and response (dance) intensity in the task of recruitment. Comparing variation obtained from the simulations with previously published empirical data, we found that response intensity plays a more important role than probability in producing consistent inter-individual differences in recruitment behaviour. We then explored the benefits provided by this individual variation in recruitment behaviour to the colony's collective foraging effort under different environmental conditions. Our results revealed that individual variation leads to a greater energetic yield per forager, but only when food is abundant. Our study highlights the need to consider all response parameters while studying division of labour and adds to the growing body of evidence linking individual variation in behavioural responses to the success of social groups.

A method to study honeybee foraging regulatory molecules at different times during foraging

The foraging of honey bees is one of the most well organized and admirable behaviors that exist among social insects. In behavioral studies, these beautiful insects have been extensively used for understanding time-space learning, landmark use and concept of learning etc. Highly organized behaviors such as social interaction and communication are systematically well organized behavioral components of honeybee foraging. Over the last two decades, understanding the regulatory mechanisms underlying honey bee foraging at the cellular and molecular levels has been increasingly interested to several researchers. Upon the search of regulatory genes of brain and behavior, immediate early (IE) genes are considered as tool to begin the investigation. Our two recent studies, have demonstrated three IE genes namely Egr-1, Hr38 and kakusei having a role in the daily foraging of bees and their association with learning and memory during the foraging. These studies further evidence that IE genes can be used as a tool in finding the specific molecular/cellular players of foraging in honey bees and its behavioral components such as learning, memory, social interaction, social communication etc. In this article we provide the details of the method of sample collection at different times during foraging to investigate the foraging regulatory molecules. Key words: Honey bee foraging, learning and memory, immediate early genes, Egr-1, Hr38, Kakusei.

Role of honey bee on mustard (Brassica spp.) yield

The study was conducted in the field at Nagarpur, Tangail, Bangladesh, from November 2016 to February 2017 to find out the role of honey bees on mustard yield. Honey bee (Apis mellifera) was the main insect pollinator during mustard flowering season. Mustard seeds of variety Tori-7 were selected for this experiment. Three different treatments were used, viz. control, netting with honey bees and netting without honey bees. Honey bees helped mustard pollination, but decreased the flowering period (6 days) of the mustard plant. Honey bees assisted the pollination of mustard and increased the number of pod per plant (14%) as well as the number of seeds per pod (11%). Honey bees enhanced the pollination of mustard plant, and netting with honey bees increased the mean seed yield (15%) per plant of mustard, however, decreased the period of flowering stage of mustard. Mustard yield was considerably higher in honey bee foraging plots. J. Biodivers. Conserv. Bioresour. Manag. 2020, 6(1): 25-30