HONEYBEE DIETS (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 - Env & Eco)

Context: Researchers is seeking insights into the impact of pollen diversity on the nutritional quality of honeybee diets. 

• They will also examine how bees regulate the collection and consumption of pollen.

Key Points

• Honeybees balance their protein-lipid intake, ensuring they do not over consume either nutrient beyond what is required.
• This balanced approach ultimately contributes to their overall health and well-being.
• Inadequate nutrition and landscape transformations are two significant contributors to the decline of over 40 per cent of managed honeybees in the United States annually.
• Brood food, a milky fluid produced by nurse bees to feed bee larvae, is where much of the damage of poor nutrition begins.
• Deficiencies in an important nutritional components in brood food, particularly protein and critical lipids, can result in poor physiological development, resulting in undersized adults, deformities and immune system damage, he added.
• Honeybees tightly regulate their protein and lipid intake, and the fatty acid composition of lipids could play an essential role in the bees’ nutritional choices.