Evaluating Altruistic Behaviors in Honey Bees (Apis mellifera L.) Infected with Gut Microsporidian Nosema ceranae
Nosema ceranae, a widely prevalent microsporidian gut parasite, causes behavioral and physiological changes in worker honey bees. Honey bees exposed to biotic stressors may remove themselves from the hive as a form of altruistic suicide. Altruistic behaviors, such as nonreproductive workers feeding the queen and larvae, guarding the hive, and sacrificing their lives when stinging intruders, are naturally displayed by honey bees. Several studies have examined the altruistic behavior of self-removal where diseased or parasitized individuals remove themselves from the colony to mitigate further transmission. However, little information is available regarding proximate mechanisms of self-removal, such as how bees determine if they should remove themselves from the hive and which bees are more likely to remove themselves. In this study, we recorded four observation hives containing infected and control honey bees and analyzed 17 different bee behaviors to determine whether infected bees displayed specific altruistic behaviors in the hive. The duration and frequencies of these behaviors between treatment groups were compared, and the number of bees involved in each interaction was analyzed. Data analysis of bee behaviors is currently in progress.
Ellie Chapkin graduated from the University of California, Davis in 2017 with a BS in Environmental Science and Management. She began as a graduate research assistant in April 2019 at Oregon State University, where she is working toward her PhD. Ellie is doing research in Dr. Ramesh Sagili’s honey bee lab after discovering her interest in bees and pollinator health while working in the honey bee lab at Texas A&M University, in her home town of College Station, Texas. Her current project involves the altruistic self-removal and drifting behaviors of honey bees.