All insects have fat bodies—tissues that contain lipids, glycogen, triglycerides, and some protein. Fat bodies store energy when food is plentiful and release energy when the bee needs it. The energy stored within these tissues is especially important during larval growth. It is also important during other periods when feeding is restricted, such as during the winter months.
The metabolic action of fat bodies is often compared to the vertebrate liver because they store nutrients and synthesize proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates that circulate throughout the body. In another similarity to the liver, fat bodies detoxify nitrogenous waste products which they extract from the hemolymph (blood-like substance) of the insect.
Summer bees have few fat bodies
Summer honey bees, which live only 4 to 6 weeks, have very few fat bodies. However, winter bees have large numbers of fat bodies distributed throughout the abdomen. Presumably these help the winter bees to live the 4 to 9 months until spring, and help provide the energy needed by the workers to keep the internal cluster at 93 degrees F. They also assist the worker bees with raising brood that will become the first generation of spring bees.
Similarly, bumble bee queens eat as much as possible before winter in order to enlarge their fat bodies. These reserves must sustain them through the winter hibernation period much like the fat accumulated by a bear. So although bumble bee queens hibernate and honey bee colonies do not, both are dependent on fat bodies to see them through the winter.
Rusty
Honey Bee Suite
RT @HoneyBeeSuite: [New Post] The role of fat bodies in bee health https://www.honeybeesuite.com/?p=2037 #beekeeping #bees #pollinators
Hallo Rusty, I have looked in your index for info. regarding hemolymph and fat bodies but found nothing very recent 2010 was last post. I have these links that you either already know about or it will amaze you as it has amazed me. They were given in a magazine I get digitally as well as by post called Natural Bee Husbandry:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv02Ur9G2_0q4czIONHHZsw/videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK2X-i0ST4rA&feature=youtu.be
They lead to a WebInar on a Danish beekeeping site but they are in English and the PhD scientist is an American whose name is Samuel Ramsey.
Lindy,
Right. This is a topic I have been going to update for months but I just haven’t gotten around to it. Thanks for the reminder!