The Effects of Sugar Syrup Enriched with Amino Acid Mixtures at Different Concentrations on Colony Population Dynamics and Development Characteristics of Bumble bee (Bombus terrestris)

Abstract

In this study, we tested the effects of amino acid-supplemented diets on colony development performances in Bombus terrestris. A total of 75 queens artificially hibernated were randomly separated into three groups. These groups were fed with different diets: normal sugar syrups and normal pollen (Control), sugar syrup which contains recommended dose (for honey bees: 10 mL/L, Sucrose syrup) of amino acid supplement and normal pollen (10 mL/L), sugar syrup which contains twice higher recommended dose of amino acid supplement and normal pollen (20 mL/L). Some developmental traits of queens and their colonies were determined. According to our findings, there were no significant differences in any of the traits of colony development except the number of total individuals among the groups (P<0.05). Results showed that feeding with an amino acid-supplemented diet is not influential on colony development traits in B. terrestris.