Suppression of Ovary Development of Worker Honeybees by Association with Workers Treated with Carbon Dioxide

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Summary Newly emerged worker honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) aged less than 24 h were placed into queen less cages and given a section of empty drone comb and unlimited supplies of honey, water and pollen. Cages were kept in an incubator at 34 ± 1°C. Workers treated with a 15-min exposure to CO2, at 0–3 days of age produced significantly fewer eggs than controls that received no CO2;. Workers in queenless cages for 4–6 days before CO2 narcosis had egg production equal LO that of controls. Thus CO2, had no apparent effect after the workers had been queenless for 4 days. In a second study, 5 untreated workers shared cages with 25 sisters that had been treated with three 15-min doses of CO2. Association with the treated workers retarded ovary development of the untreated cagemates when compared to sister bees in identical cages that contained no bees given CO2, Cages with treated workers consumed only 17% as much pollen as controls. So low pollen consumption may have reduced the total amount of protein that was available and shared within the caged population. Since oogenesis requires protein, a lack of protein may have retarded ovary development.