Measuring honey bee feeding rhythms with the Beebox, a platform for nectar foraging insects
2024
Sokolowski, Michel B.C. | Bottet, Guillaume | Dacher, Matthieu | Université de Picardie Jules Verne (UPJV) | Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12 (UPEC UP12) | Institut d'écologie et des sciences de l'environnement de Paris (iEES Paris) ; Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12 (UPEC UP12)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)
International audience
显示更多 [+] 显示较少 [-]英语. In honey bees, most studies of circadian rhythms involve a locomotion test performed in a small tube, a tunnel, or at the hive entrance. However, despite feeding playing an important role in honey bee health or fitness, no demonstration of circadian rhythm on feeding has been performed until recently. Here, we present the BeeBox, a new laboratory platform for bees based on the concept of the Skinner box, which dispenses discrete controlled amounts of food (sucrose syrup) following entrance into an artificial flower. We compared caged groups of bees in 12h-12h light/dark cycles, constant darkness and constant light and measured average hourly syrup consumption per living bee. Food intake was higher in constant light and lower in constant darkness; mortality increased in constant light. We observed rhythmic consumption with a period longer than 24h; this is maintained in darkness without environmental cues, but is damped in the constant light condition. The BeeBox offers many new research perspectives and numerous potential applications in the study of nectar foraging animals.
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