Bee-ing Aware: Monitoring Honey Bee Larval Nutrition, Chemical Exposure, and Neurobiological Effects

Honey bees are required for economical fruit, nut, and vegetable production worldwide. Their navigation and learning abilities allow them to thrive in diverse environments, including heavily degraded agricultural landscapes. However, current and projected annual colony death rates are unsustainable due in part to poorly understood nutritional and chemical stressors that impair adult honey bee cognitive abilities. The most critical time for nutritional, and likely chemical, inputs to the nervous system in honey bees is the developmental larval stage. Despite this, there is almost no data on the nutrient and chemical content of juvenile (larval) honey bee diets, nor the extent to which these factors contribute to colony loss. This surprising knowledge gap reflects the diCiculty in measuring the milk-like secretions that adult honey bees feed larvae. We will employ high throughput methods replicated across diverse hives to identify a panel of essential macronutrients (carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins), plant phytochemicals, and pollutants found in larval honey bee diets. Approaches will include ICP-MS, LC-TOF, and GCMS.