Honeybees blend special ‘baby food’ for balanced larval diet, study finds
7 reported
A study published in Current Biology reports that honeybees blend a special "baby food" to provide their larvae with a balanced diet, and adult bees can regulate their feeding to avoid overconsuming certain nutrients. Researchers found that bees adjust how much they eat when pollen sources lack the ideal balance of essential amino acids, which animals cannot produce and must obtain from their diet. The study suggests that wild bee species, which feed pollen directly to larvae, require diverse pollen sources to thrive, and that pollinator-friendly planting should consider both the number and diversity of pollen sources and their nutritional quality. Lead author Geraldine Wright, professor of entomology at the University of Oxford, noted that pollen is the male gamete of plants and is rarely produced solely as a reward for pollinators, creating a conflict of interest. The researchers compared essential amino acid profiles of honeybee tissues with pollen from 99 British flowering plant species and created artificial diets for controlled experiments. They found that most pollen sources were a poor match for bee tissue amino acid profiles, and bees fed diets matching their tissue composition ate more, gained more body mass, and consumed a more protein-rich balance. The study also discovered that honeybees collect pollen from many flowers and store it as "bee bread," which nurse bees convert into glandular secretions like royal jelly that are fed to larvae, with royal jelly closely matching the amino acid profile of bee tissues.
What’s reported
The study was published in Current Biology.
Researchers compared essential amino acid profiles of honeybee tissues with pollen from 99 species of British flowering plant.
Most pollen sources tested were a poor match for the essential amino acid profile of bee tissues.
Bees fed diets matching their own tissue composition ate more, gained more body mass, and consumed a more protein-rich balance.
Honeybees collect pollen from many flowers and store it as "bee bread," which nurse bees convert into glandular secretions including royal jelly fed to larvae.
Royal jelly closely matched the amino acid profile of bee tissues.
The study involved researchers from the University of Oxford, University of Southampton, Newcastle University, Lancaster University, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Key figures
Geraldine Wright, professor of entomology at the University of Oxford, lead author of the study.
Sources: The Guardian
