Vitamin C enhancement of brood rearing by caged honeybees fed a chemically defined diet

Abstract

Abstract Pollen collected by bees was sampled during a 3‐h period once a week from April to October 1983 and analyzed for vitamin C (L‐ascorbic acid and dehydroascorbic acid). The levels were highly variable and ranged from a low of 136 μg/g pollen (April) to a high of 1943 μg/g pollen (May). Overall, caged honeybees fed diets containing 1,000 and 2,000 μg/g L‐ascorbic acid reared significantly more bees to the sealed stage than bees fed diets with 500 μg/g ascorbic acid or control bees. The levels of vitamin C in prepupae reared by bees ranged from 64.5 to 103.5 μg/g body mass. Vitamin C is either synthesized from simple precursors or from symbiotic microorganisms in the gut since honeybees fed the ascorbic acid‐free control had equivalent levels of ascorbic acid to those fed the enriched diets. The total diet consumption by bees during the 10‐week study showed that the four diets were equally attractive.