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Honey bee developmentHoney bees are holometabolous insects, meaning that the immature stages (egg, larvae, and pupae) are morphologically and physiologically very different from adults. As larvae, honey bees rapidly feed and grow over the course of five days; at the end of this they begin pupation. As pupae they stop eating and begin to develop the morphological and physiological traits of an adult bee. During this process pupae are sealed off from the rest of the colony with a wax seal. When they are mature they chew through the wax and emerge as adults!
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Studying larvae in the labIn our lab we study the interactions between larval health and their microbiome. To control for environmental variables and to manipulate the microbes with which the larvae associate we need to rear them in a controlled laboratory setting. That means we have to gently remove the larvae from the colony and feed them by hand daily. Shown to the right is a video of how we transfer larvae (a process called grafting) out of the colony and into plates we have prepared with sterilized diet. From here we can keep them in a temperature controlled incubator and feed them daily until they pupate.
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Honey Bee Coloring Pages
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