Altruistic behaviors of honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) infected with microsporidian parasite Nosema ceranae

Nosema ceranae is a widely prevalent microsporidian gut parasite that causes behavioral and physiological changes in worker honey bees. It has been shown that honey bees exposed to a biotic stress may remove themselves from the hive as a form of altruistic suicide. Honey bees naturally display several altruistic behaviors, such as non-reproductive workers feeding the queen and larvae, guarding the hive, and sacrificing their lives when stinging intruders. Several studies have examined the altruistic behavior of self-removal where diseased or parasitized individuals remove themselves from the colony to mitigate further transmission. However, little information is available regarding proximate mechanisms of self-removal, such as how bees determine if they should remove themselves from the hive, and which bees are more likely to remove themselves from the hive. In this study, we recorded four observation hives containing infected and control honey bees and analyzed 17 different bee behaviors to determine if infected bees displayed any specific altruistic behaviors in the hive. The duration and frequencies of these behaviors between treatment groups was compared, and the number of bees involved in each interaction was analyzed. Data analysis is currently in progress.