Dissertation Research: A test of Risk Sensitivity Theory and its energy budget rule in the honeybee

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Disease is often known to lead to the performance of risky behaviors. Using the energy budget rule of Risk Sensitivity Theory as a theoretical foundation, this project asks whether such risky behavior stems from the energetic stress incurred from a disease because it is adaptive to be risk-averse when one?s energy budget is positive and be risk-prone when it is negative. Using the honeybee as a model, the project will use a suite of feeding regimes to put individuals at different energy budgets and use an olfactory conditioning assay to test their choice for constant (risk-averse) and variable (risk-prone) reward distributions. The project will also test how an individual monitors its energetic state in order to behave in a risk-sensitive fashion and how this assessment is operative in an individual whose energetic state is tightly tied to that of the colony. Using an enzyme inhibitor to keep an individual artificially starved and thus uncouple its energetic state from that of its colony (which also mimics the energetic stress of a parasitic infection in a host), the project will test if foraging decisions can be dictated by the energetic state of the individual independent of the energetic state of the colony. By integrating potential links between disease ecology, physiology, and behavioral ecology, the proposed research has the potential to provide a mechanistic basis and a novel perspective for the recent worldwide phenomenon of honeybee colony collapse characterized by bees disappearing from their colonies. The project will also involve undergraduate students in science education at local schools and collaboration with local beekeepers to improve honeybee health in general.