5.15 Feeding and caste determination

Question 1

What are the three different components of brood food?

Answer 1

1. White, produced by the mandibular glands and containing biopterin and pantothenic acid.
2. Clear from the hypopharyngeal glands with a small amount of crop contents.
3. Yellow, derived from pollen.

Question 2

What are the two types of brood food?

Answer 2

1. Basic brood food fed to worker and drone larvae.
2. Royal jelly fed to queen larvae and adults, with some fed to all other members of the colony.

Question 3

What are the common features of brood food and royal jelly?

Answer 3

1. High in proteins, mainly Major Royal Jelly Proteins (MRJP).
2. MRJPs contain a high percentage of the 10 essential amino acids.
3. Main lipid is 10-hydroxy-2-decanoic acid (10HDA) with antibiotic activity.

Question 4

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What is the feeding ratio of worker larvae food?

Answer 4

The food of worker larvae contains a ratio of 2:9:3 white to clear to yellow averaged over 5 days of larval feeding.

Question 5

How is the feeding of queen larvae different from worker larvae?

Answer 5

Queen larvae receive mostly white food for the first three days and a 1:1 ratio of white to clear during the last two days. Worker larvae receives a ratio of 2:9:3 white to clear to yellow averaged over all 5 days of larval feeding.

Question 6

How much more pantothenic acid and biopterin does royal jelly contain compared to normal brood food?

Answer 6

Royal jelly contains 10 times more pantothenic acid and 18 times more biopterin than normal brood food.

Question 7

How often are queen larvae visited by nurse bees compared to worker larvae?

Answer 7

Queen larvae are visited 10 times more often by nurse bees than worker larvae.

Question 8

What is the sugar content difference between royal jelly and worker food?

Answer 8

Royal jelly has 34% sugar content, while worker food has 12% for the first 3 days, increasing to 47% over the last two days.

Question 9

What is the main sugar component of royal jelly throughout the larval period?

Answer 9

The main sugar component of royal jelly is glucose.

Question 10

What happens to caste determination if eggs or larvae are transposed before three days old?

Answer 10

How they are fed and subsequently develop depends on the type of cell they are in, with better quality queens developing if moved earlier.

Question 11

What happens if larvae are moved on Day 3 or Day 4?

Answer 11

If moved on Day 3, they could develop as an intercaste; on Day 4, caste is fixed.