Meeting Abstract
84.1 Tuesday, Jan. 6 The effects of age and behavioral development on the flight performance of honey bees ROBERTS, S.P.*; VANCE, J.T.; WILLIAMS, J.B.; ELEKONICH, M.M.; Univ. of Nevada Las Vegas; Univ. of Nevada Las Vegas; Univ. of Nevada Las Vegas; Univ. of Nevada Las Vegas stephen.roberts@unlv.edu
A critical issue in life history theory is how behavior and age affect the lifetime kinetics of whole-organism performance. Studies of this issue should ideally separate the effects of age and behavior without ambiguity, focus on performance traits that are ecologically relevant, and utilize free-living models. In this study we compared the flight performance of honey bees (whose behavioral development and age can be assessed independently via simple manipulations of colony demographics) between distinct behavioral castes (in-hive nurse bees vs. out-of-hive foragers) and across lifespan. Variable-density gases and high-speed video were used to determine the maximum hovering flight capacity and wing kinematics of age-matched nurse bees and foragers sampled from a single-cohort colony over a period of 34 days. The transition from hive-work to foraging was accompanied by a 42% decrease in body mass and a proportional increase in flight capacity (defined as the minimum gas density allowing hovering flight). The lower flight capacity of hive-bees was primarily due to the fact that in air they were functioning at a near maximal wing angular velocity due to their high body masses. Foragers were lighter and when hovering in air they required a much lower wing angular velocity, which they were able to increase by 32% during maximal flight performance. Flight performance of hive-bees was independent of age, but in foragers the maximal wingbeat frequency and maximal wing angular velocity were lowest in precocious (7 to 14-day-old) foragers, highest in normal-aged (15 to 28-day-old) foragers and intermediate in foragers older than 29 days. This pattern coincides with age-dependent biochemical and metabolic properties of honey bee flight muscle.
