Manipulating nest architecture reveals three-dimensional building strategies and colony resilience in honeybees
Manipulating nest architecture reveals three-dimensional building strategies and colony resilience in honeybees
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DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2022.2565
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发表时间：
2023-05
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
P. Marting;Benjamin Koger;Michael L. Smith
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文献类型：
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作者：
P. Marting;Benjamin Koger;Michael L. Smith
在有机体的整个发育过程中，形式遵循功能。这一原则应该适用于有机体之外的它们所建造的巢穴，但缺乏实证研究。蜜蜂提供了一个独特的系统来研究整个发育过程中的巢穴形式和功能，因为我们可以重复且非破坏性地对三维结构进行成像。在这里，我们在 45 天内跟踪了 6 个蜂群（对照蜂群）的巢范围生长情况，发现蜂群具有维持球形巢形状的刻板发育过程。为了通过实验测试巢结构对菌落功能是否重要，我们对另外六个菌落的巢进行了洗牌，每周重新排列梳子位置和方向（洗牌的菌落）。令人惊讶的是，我们发现对照蜂群和重组蜂群在多个蜂群性能指标（工蜂数量、蜂巢面积、蜂巢重量和蜂巢温度）方面没有差异。然而，通过使用预测模型来研究工蚁如何分配梳子来扩大它们的巢穴，我们发现，重新排列的蚁群通过考虑三维结构来重新连接它们的巢穴，从而补偿了这些干扰。这表明巢穴结构比以前想象的更加灵活，并且超级有机体具有补偿剧烈的结构扰动并维持群体功能的机制。
Form follows function throughout the development of an organism. This principle should apply beyond the organism to the nests they build, but empirical studies are lacking. Honeybees provide a uniquely suited system to study nest form and function throughout development because we can image the three-dimensional structure repeatedly and non-destructively. Here, we tracked nest-wide comb growth in six colonies over 45 days (control colonies) and found that colonies have a stereotypical process of development that maintains a spheroid nest shape. To experimentally test if nest structure is important for colony function, we shuffled the nests of an additional six colonies, weekly rearranging the comb positions and orientations (shuffled colonies). Surprisingly, we found no differences between control and shuffled colonies in multiple colony performance metrics—worker population, comb area, hive weight and nest temperature. However, using predictive modelling to examine how workers allocate comb to expand their nests, we show that shuffled colonies compensate for these disruptions by accounting for the three-dimensional structure to reconnect their nest. This suggests that nest architecture is more flexible than previously thought, and that superorganisms have mechanisms to compensate for drastic architectural perturbations and maintain colony function.