An immune response in the bumblebee, Bombus terrestris leads to increased food consumption

Abstract

Background: The concept of a costly immune system that must be traded off against other important physiological systems is fundamental to the burgeoning field of ecological immunity. Bumblebees have become one of the central models in this field. Although previous work has demonstrated costs of immunity in numerous life history traits, estimates of the more direct costs of bumblebee immunity have yet to be made.

Results: Here we show a 7.5% increase in energy consumption in response to non-pathogenic immune stimulation.

Conclusion: This increase in energy consumption along with other results suggests that immunity is one of the most important physiological systems, with other systems being sacrificed for its continuing efficiency. This increased consumption and maintained activity contrasts with the sickness-induced anorexia and reduced activity found in vertebrates.

Figure 1

Honeywater consumption over time. Log₁₀ transformed honeywater consumption per bee measured on 10 different days. The solid points represent the bees injected with LPS. The hollow points represent data from ringer injected bees. The t-bars represent the respective standard errors.