presented her research findings<\/a>\u00a0at the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution\u2019s Annual Conference in her talk, \u201cInvestigating Juvenile Hormone Effects on Aggression and Seasonal Flight Timing in Male Eastern Carpenter Bees.\u201d<\/p>\nShe found that juvenile hormone \u2014 which regulates development in immature insects and plays a role in reproduction \u2014 was fueling the aggression.<\/p>\n
During her experiment, Corbin used a clear, circular tube to observe how male bees interact with one another and measured how long it took before they displayed aggressive behaviour towards one another.<\/p>\n
Corbin then applied methoprene, a substance mimicking the juvenile hormone, to the bees\u2019 abdomens in one treatment group while a second group went without.<\/p>\n
She found most bees treated with methoprene became aggressive more quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had some knowledge on how this hormone influences females but not males,\u201d Corbin says. \u201cThere is still a lot to learn about the factors that influence male territoriality in these bees. Now, we have more insight on how hormones enable males to defend their territories.\u201d<\/p>\n
Corbin also set out to determine if the concentration of juvenile hormone in male bees fluctuates during the season.<\/p>\n
She captured male carpenter bees before and after females flew out of their nests and compared the levels of juvenile hormone in their hemolymph \u2014 a fluid similar to blood.<\/p>\n
Corbin found juvenile hormone levels were higher in males caught before the females flew out of their nests, which she says shows males probably have to become aggressive quickly if they want to start establishing their territory with competitors nearby.<\/p>\n
During her fieldwork, however, Corbin noticed a group of male bees who appeared to be hovering in their territories later in the spring season than she expected. Their juvenile hormone levels were high.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think one of the reasons for that is that juvenile hormone acts as an internal motivator for the males to keep going,\u201d Corbin says. \u201cThey experience a lot of stress outdoors with being exposed to the sun, with the heat. They’re beating each other up and injuring themselves all the time, they\u2019re using their flight muscles all day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her supervisor, Professor of Biological Sciences Miriam Richards, says Corbin\u2019s research sheds more light on juvenile hormone, which is a major regulator of juvenile development that is repurposed in adulthood with\u00a0different functions.<\/p>\n
\u201cLyllian\u2019s research shows how hormones can have completely different roles at different stages and in different sexes,\u201d says Richards. \u201cIt\u2019s a fun\u00a0example of how evolution makes many different products out of the same building blocks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richards heads up Brock University\u2019s Bee Lab<\/a>, which studies the behaviour, evolution and ecology of bees in the Niagara region and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the first hint of the weather warming, male eastern carpenter bees spring into action. A territorial lot determined to mate, they gather near the entrances of nests \u2014 where combat then begins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":109787,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7484,3319,41,4767,1,5],"tags":[8907,348,11481,5961],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109776"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109776"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109789,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109776\/revisions\/109789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}