Honey bee workers typically switch from jobs inside the colony to collecting nectar and pollen at three weeks of age. However, bee behavioral development is plastic, if colony conditions require, bees may initiate foraging as early as one week of age. Endocrine and neural development of precocious foragers are indistinguishable from typical foragers. However, there is accumulating evidence that precocious foragers are not as successful as typical foragers. We tested the hypothesis that flight muscle development differs between precocious and typical foragers, explaining performance differences. We measured nectar load, wing beat frequency , and contractile protein profile of typical and precocious foragers.
Species 1: Hymenoptera Apidae Apis mellifera (Honey bee)
Keywords: Wingbeat frequency, indirect flight muscle
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