title: Low-Temperature Stress during Capped Brood Stage Increases Pupal Mortality, Misorientation and Adult Mortality in Honey Bees.
abstract: Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are key pollinators, playing a vital role in ecosystem maintenance and stability of crop yields. Recently, reduced honey bee survival has attracted intensive attention. Among all other honey bee stresses, temperature is a fundamental ecological factor that has been shown to affect honey bee survival. Yet, the impact of low temperature stress during capped brood on brood mortality has not been systematically investigated. In addition, little was known about how low temperature exposure during capped brood affects subsequent adult longevity. In this study, capped worker broods at 12 different developmental stages were exposed to 20°C for 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84 and 96 hours, followed by incubation at 35°C until emergence. We found that longer durations of low temperature during capped brood led to higher mortality, higher incidences of misorientation inside cells and shorter worker longevity. Capped brood as prepupae and near emergence were more sensitive to low-temperature exposure, while capped larvae and mid-pupal stages showed the highest resistance to low-temperature stress. Our results suggest that prepupae and pupae prior to eclosion are the most sensitive stages to low temperature stress, as they are to other stresses, presumably due to many physiological changes related to metamorphosis happening during these two stages. Understanding how low-temperature stress affects honey bee physiology and longevity can improve honey bee management strategies.
authors.affiliation: College of Bee Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China.|College of Life Sciences, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Bee Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China.
authors.forename: Xinjian
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: College of Bee Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China.
authors.forename: Xiangjie
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: College of Bee Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: College of Bee Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China.
authors.forename: Shujing
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: College of Bee Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China.|Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, United States of America.|Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, United States of America.|BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, United States of America.
authors.forename: Zachary Y
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: College of Bee Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China.
authors.forename: Bingfeng
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003080:Cold Temperature; D008136:Longevity; D009026:Mortality; D011679:Pupa; D013312:Stress, Physiological