A Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Light Phase Response Curve

Abstract

The authors report a phase response curve (PRC) for individual honey bees (Apis mellifera) to single 1-h light pulses (1000 lux) using an Aschoff Type 1 protocol (n = 134). The bee PRC is a weak (Type 1) PRC with a maximum advance of 1.5 h between circadian time (CT) 18 and 3 and a maximum delay of 1.5 h between CT 12 and 18. This is the first published honey bee light PRC and provides an important resource for chronobiologists and honey bee researchers. It may also have practical applications for what is an economically important species frequently transported across different time zones. (Author correspondence: [email protected])

Keywords:

• Apis mellifera
• Circadian rhythm
• Honey bee
• Light
• Phase response curve
• Phase shift

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by a University of Auckland Summer Studentship to N.M.L., a Faculty Research Development Fund award to G.R.W. and C.D.M., University of Auckland, the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution (C.D.M.), and a Marsden grant from the Royal Society of New Zealand (07-UOA-012) to G.R.W. and J.F.C. The authors wish to acknowledge Mr. Vernon Tintinger and Mr. Alex Stuckey for assistance with bee-keeping and Mr. Bruce Anderson for engineering assistance.

Declaration of Interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.