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Limited flexibility in the temporal caste system of the honey bee

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Abstract

Caste theory predicts that social insect colonies are organized into stable groups of workers specialized on particular task sets. Alternative concepts of organization of work suggest that colonies are composed of extremely flexible workers able to perform any task as demand necessitates. I explored the flexibility of workers in temporal castes of the honey bee Apis mellifera by determining the ability of colonies to reorganize labor after a major demographic disturbance. I evaluated the flexibility of temporal castes by comparing the foraging rates of colonies having just lost their foragers with colonies having also lost their foragers but having been given a week to reorganize. The population sizes and contents of the colonies in each group were equalized and foraging rates were recorded for one week. Colonies given a week’s initial recovery time after the loss of their foragers were found to forage at significantly higher rates than those colonies given no initial recovery time. This result was consistent for nectar and pollen foraging. These results suggest that honeybee workers lack sufficient flexibility to reorganize labor without compromising foraging. This finding is consistent with the caste concept model of organization of work in insect societies.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Tom Seeley for helpful advice in the design of the experiment and for commenting on the manuscript. I would also like to thank Kern Reeve, Cole Gilbert, and Paul Sherman for providing comments on the manuscript. This work was funded by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship

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  1. Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Mudd Hall, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Brian R. Johnson

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  1. Brian R. Johnson
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Correspondence to Brian R. Johnson.

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Communicated by J. Traniello

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Johnson, B.R. Limited flexibility in the temporal caste system of the honey bee. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 58, 219–226 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-005-0949-z

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