DOI: 10.5061/dryad.k3j9kd5gh
title: Data from: Age-dependent hypopharyngeal gland size and protein content of stingless bee workers, Tetragonula pagdeni.

description: Eusocial insects, such as stingless bees (Meliponini), depend on division
 of labour, overlapping generations, and collaborative brood care to ensure
 the functionality and success of their colony. Female workers transition
 through a range of age-specific tasks during their lifespan (i.e.,
 age-polyethism) and play a central role in the success of a colony. These
 age-specific tasks (e.g., brood care or foraging) often closely coincide
 with key physiological changes necessary to ensure optimal performance.
 However, our understanding of how nutrition, age, and polyethism may
 affect the development of such physiological traits in stingless bees
 remains limited. Here we show that pollen consumption and age-polyethism
 govern hypopharyngeal gland (HPG) acini size and protein content
 in Tetragonula pagdeni. By conducting a controlled laboratory
 experiment we monitored the effect of pollen consumption on worker bee
 survival as well as assessed how a pollen diet and age affected their HPG
 acini width and protein content. Further, we sampled nurses and foragers
 from field colonies to measure the effect of age-polyethism on HPG acini
 width. We found that pollen consumption enhanced survival and led to
 increased HPG acini width and protein content and that HPG acini were as
 expected, the largest in nurse bees. Our findings highlight the beneficial
 effects of an adequate diet for physiological development and health in
 stingless bees and reveal that age-polyethism is the key factor governing
 HPG size in worker bees. As HPGs are imperative for collaborative brood
 care - an essential component of eusociality - the data provide a
 foundation for future studies to investigate the impact of potential
 environmental stressors on a critical physiological trait in stingless
 bees which may serve as a proxy to understand the effects at the colony
 level.
description: This PONE-D-24-15848_Complete data.xlsx file was generated on 2024-03-22
 by Dr. Lars Straub ## GENERAL INFORMATION 1. Title of Dataset:
 "PONE-D-24-15848_Complete data.xlsx". 2. Author Information A.
 Principal Investigator Contact Information Name: Lars Straub Institution:
 Institute of Bee Health, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Bern,
 Switzerland Address: Schwarzenburgstrasse 161, 3097 Liebefeld, Bern,
 Switzerland Email: [lars.straub@unibe.ch](mailto:lars.straub@unibe.ch) 3.
 Date of data collection (single date, range, approximate date): Between
 January and May 2023 4. Geographic location of data collection: The study
 was performed at the King Mongkut's University of Technology North
 Bangkok, Rayong Campus, Rayong, Thailand 5. Information about funding
 sources that supported the collection of the data: Support was provided by
 the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, King Mongkut's University of
 Technology North Bangkok, and the Vinetum Foundation to L.S. Further, this
 project was funded by the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT).
 There was no additional external funding received for this study ## DATA
 & FILE OVERVIEW 1. File List: Excel file
 ("PONE-D-24-15848_Complete data.xlsx") has three sheets. Sheets
 1, 2, and 3 have the complete raw data required to repeat all the
 statistical analyses. 2. Relationship between files, if important: Yes,
 however, all statistical tests can be run independently as all the
 relevant data is provided per sheet. 3. Additional related data collected
 that was not included in the current data package: None. 4. Are there
 multiple versions of the dataset? No ## METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION Please
 see the manuscript for details. ### DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR SHEET 1
 (Survival): 1\. Number of variables: 7 2\. Number of cases/rows: 360 3\.
 Variable List: Sample: Number of the individual bees (i.e., specimen)
 TreatmentName: This is the name of the respective treatment Treatment:
 Numeric numbering of treatment Cage: The respective cage in which the bee
 (specimen) was in Pollen: Did the specimen receive pollen (binary
 response; 0 = no pollen and 1 = pollen) Age: Age in days of how old the
 bee was Status: Did the individual survive until the end of our experiment
 (binary response, with 0 being no and 1 being yes) 4\. Missing data codes:
 None. 5\. Specialized formats or other abbreviations used: None. ###
 DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR SHEET 2 (HPG): 1\. Number of variables: 11
 2\. Number of cases/rows: 1800 3\. Variable List: Sample: Number of the
 individual bees (i.e., specimen) Specimen: The specific ID of the bee used
 Replicate: The individual acini in the HPG measured Baseline: Was the
 sample a baseline individual that was not exposed to a treatment (binary
 yes no response; 0 = not baseline and 1 = baseline) Treatment: Numeric
 numbering of treatment Colony: Was the bee directly sampled from the field
 colony (binary response ; 0 = laboratory and 1 = field) Pollen: Did the
 specimen receive pollen (binary response; 0 = no pollen and 1 = pollen))
 Age: Age of the specimen (i.e., bee) Cage: The respective cage in which
 the bee (specimen) was in AciniSize: The response variable is the size of
 the acini (in um) 4\. Missing data codes: NA. Missing data means that we
 were not able to collect the specific data for this specimen. 5\.
 Specialized formats or other abbreviations used: None. ### DATA-SPECIFIC
 INFORMATION FOR SHEET 3 (Protein): 1\. Number of variables: 7 2\. Number
 of cases/rows: 24 3\. Variable List: Sample: Number of the individual bees
 (i.e., specimen) Specimen: The specific ID of the bee used TreatmentName:
 This is the name of the respective treatment Treatment: Numeric numbering
 of treatment Baseline: Was the sample a baseline individual that was not
 exposed to a treatment (binary yes no response; 0 = not exposed and 1 =
 exposed) Pollen: Did the specimen receive pollen (binary response; 0 = no
 pollen and 1 = pollen)) Age: Age of the specimen (i.e., bee)
 ProteinContent(ug/ml): The response variable is the protein content
 measured in the HPGs measured in ug per mL 4\. Missing data codes: None.
 5\. Specialized formats or other abbreviations used: None.