The survival consequences of grooming in the honey bee Apis mellifera

Link to article: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00040-022-00868-2

This paper came out of a project by one of the undergraduates I mentored, the brilliant Anna Foose. We tested how self and allogrooming in honey bees affected survival outcomes, with and without the added stressors of a pesticide and/or an immune challenge. Pesticide exposure increased the frequency of self-grooming regardless of social context. Immune challenge actually decreased the frequency of self-grooming in isolated bees, but these effects were buffered when the bee was placed in a social group. Self-grooming overall was a significant predictor of survival at 24hrs. Allogrooming did not seem to predict survival, although allogrooming interactions were very infrequent in our study and thus difficult to assess if the effects were subtle.

Below: a) Undergraduate Anna Foose injects yeast into a honey bee's abdomen, which stimulates its immune system in a similar manner to natural infection. b) Undergraduate Anna Foose, first author on this publication and Rebecca Westwick's mentee. c) Dishes used in behavioral observation for grooming.

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