Growth and Development of Honeybees in the Laboratory on Altered Queen and Worker Diets

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Abstract
Growth and development were studied using natural diets altered to provide wide variation in content of sugar and 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid. Young larvae fed for one day on stored royal jelly, treated with juvenile hormone at 48 h, and then transferred to an altered royal jelly diet low in 10-hydroxydecenoic acid, developed mostly into queens. A diet of sugar-enriched worker jelly combined with juvenile hormone treatment gave similar results. Larvae reared without juvenile hormone treatment, on diets based on worker jelly but altered to resemble royal jelly in content of sugar and of 10-hydroxydecenoic acid, were much more queen-like in their development than larvae reared on stored royal jelly; adults included queens and intermediates as well as workers. Response of larvae to levels of sugar and 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid differed with source of diet. Larvae on altered worker diets tolerated sugar concentrations which killed most larvae on altered royal jelly; they were also less sensitive to the level of 10-hydroxydecenoate than larvae on altered royal jelly diets. It was concluded that caste differentiation is influenced by the levels of other nutrients besides sugar and 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid, and is more complex than has been realized hitherto.