Recent work demonstrated that honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) queens reared in pesticide-laden beeswax exhibit significant changes in the composition of the chemicals produced by their mandibular glands including those that comprise queen mandibular pheromone, which is a critical signal used in mating as well as queen tending behavior. For the present study, we hypothesized that pesticide exposure during development would alter other queen-produced chemicals, including brood pheromone in immature queens, thus resulting in differential feeding of queen larvae by nurse workers, ultimately impacting adult queen morphology. We tested these hypotheses by rearing queens in beeswax containing field-relevant concentrations of 1) a combination of tau-fluvalinate and coumaphos, 2) amitraz, or 3) a combination of chlorothalonil and chlorpyrifos. These pesticides are ubiquitous in most commercial beekeeping operations in North America. We observed nurse feeding rates of queen larvae grafted into pesticide-laden beeswax, analyzed the chemical composition of larval queen pheromones and measured morphological markers in adult queens. Neither the nurse feeding rates, nor the chemical profiles of immature queen pheromones, differed significantly between queens reared in pesticide-laden wax compared to queens reared in pesticide-free wax. Moreover, pesticide exposure during development did not cause virgin or mated adult queens to exhibit differences in morphological markers (i.e., body weight, head width, or thorax width). These results were unexpected given our previous research and indicate that future work is needed to fully understand how pesticide exposure during development affects honey bee queen physiology, as well as how various adult queen quality metrics relate to each other.

中文翻译：

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蜜蜂在发育过程中接触农药不会影响幼虫的摄食率，育雏信息素成分或成年形态

最近的研究表明，在充满杀虫剂的蜂蜡中饲养的蜂王（Apis mellifera L.）在其下颌腺产生的化学成分（包括下颌女王信息素的化学成分）方面发生了显着变化，这是交配中使用的重要信号。以及女王的抚养行为。对于本研究，我们假设在发育过程中接触农药会改变其他皇后产生的化学物质，包括未成熟皇后中的卵信息素，从而导致护理人员对皇后幼虫进行有差别的喂养，最终影响成年皇后的形态。我们通过在蜂蜡中饲养皇后来检验这些假说，这些蜂蜡中含有与田野有关的浓度：1）牛磺酸氟尿酸和香豆磷的组合； 2）阿米特拉斯； 3）百菌清和毒死rif的组合。这些杀虫剂在北美大多数商业养蜂场中无处不在。我们观察了嫁接满载农药的蜂蜡中皇后幼虫的护士摄食率，分析了皇后幼虫信息素的化学成分并测量了成年皇后的形态标记。与使用无农药蜡饲养的皇后相比，使用含农药蜡饲养的皇后之间的护士进食速度或未成熟皇后信息素的化学特征均无显着差异。而且，在发育过程中接触农药不会使处女或交配的成年女王表现出形态学标志（即体重，头宽或胸宽）上的差异。