Measuring honey bee feeding rhythms with the Beebox, a platform for nectar foraging insects - Sorbonne Université
Journal Articles Physiology & behavior Year : 2024

Measuring honey bee feeding rhythms with the Beebox, a platform for nectar foraging insects

Abstract

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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Year Month Jours
Avant la publication
Saturday, November 30, 2024
Embargoed file
Saturday, November 30, 2024
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hal-04593329 , version 1 (30-05-2024)

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Michel B.C. Sokolowski, Guillaume Bottet, Matthieu Dacher. Measuring honey bee feeding rhythms with the Beebox, a platform for nectar foraging insects. Physiology & behavior, In press, pp.114598. ⟨10.1016/j.physbeh.2024.114598⟩. ⟨hal-04593329⟩
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