Today’s honey bees are thought to have shorter life spans than they did 50 years ago. If earlier the age of honey bees could reach 34.3 days in 1970, now the age of bees is estimated to reach only 17.7 days.
This theory was revealed on the basis of a new study by entomologists from the University of Maryland in the USA. Scientists believe that the now shorter lifespan of bees has contributed to the decline in honey production in parts of the Americas.
Quoted from detikEdu as described in Science newspaper, in the production of honey, the bee colony is an important factor. The bees in the colony will age naturally and die. But in recent decades, American beekeepers have reported high loss rates, meaning more colonies have to be replaced to keep the honey business afloat.
In studying this phenomenon, scientists look at environmental stressors, diseases, parasites, pesticide exposure and bee nutrition. The study, published Nov. 14, 2022 in the journal Scientific Reports, separated bees from their colonies to find out why the shortened lifespan of bees
“We isolated the bees from colony life just before they became adults, so anything that shortens their lifespan could have happened before that time,” says Anthony Nearman, PhD, a student in the Department of Entomology and lead author of the paper. study.
‘This introduces the idea of a genetic component. If this hypothesis is correct, it also suggests a possible solution. If we can isolate some of the genetic factors, then perhaps we can breed longer-lived honey bees,’ he said.
Nearman first noticed a decrease in lifespan while conducting research with entomology professor Dennis van Engelsdorp. Replicating an earlier study, the researchers harvested bee cocoons from honeybee hives when they were within 24 hours of emerging from the waxy cells in which they were reared. The collected bees finished growing in an incubator and were then reared as adult bees in special cages.
Nearman and team evaluated the effect of a sugar water diet on bees caged with plain water to mimic natural conditions. Regardless of diet, the average lifespan of captive bees was found to be half that of confined bees in a similar experiment in the 1970s. In 1970 bees could live up to 34.3 days. While bees in 2022 are only half or 17.7 days old.
“Standard protocols for keeping honey bees in labs weren’t really formalized until the 2000s. So you might expect lifespans to be longer or the same, because we’re getting better at that (standard protocols), right? Instead, we’re as the rate of increase in deaths has doubled,” he said.
Although the laboratory environment is very different from that of a colony, laboratory-raised bees exhibit a lifespan similar to that of colony bees. Previous studies have also shown that in the real world, a shorter lifespan of honey bees is associated with less foraging time and less honey production.
Nearman and vanEngelsdorp note that lab-raised bees can experience some sort of low-level viral contamination or pesticide exposure during the larval stage. But bees have yet to show any obvious symptoms of this hypothesis. Now, scientists are trying to dig deeper into the age of bees across a wider area.
This article was originally posted on detikEdu by title Revealed! The age of bees is now shorter than it was 50 years ago
(ral/iqk)
