. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Jun 21.

Published in final edited form as: Environ Entomol. 2019 Feb 13;48(1):12–21. doi: 10.1093/ee/nvy168

Table 2.

Total amount (mg/bee) of nectar and pollen consumed per day for different life stages and castes of bumble bees (Bombus spp.) and honey bees (Apis mellifera L.).

		Amount Consumed Per Day (mg/bee)^*
Food	Life Stage/Caste	Bumble Bees	Honey Bees
sucrose/nectar^†	adult worker	73–400^1–5	32–499^5,6
	adult queen	163–1310^7,8	0⁹
	larva (non-queen)	24–60^5,10,11	12–117^5,6,9
	larva (queen)	unknown	0⁹

pollen	adult worker	20–30^2,5,6,12,13	0–12^5,6
	adult queen	37–60^8,14	0⁹
	larva (non-queen)	10–40^5,11,13	0.3–2.7^6,15–17
	larva (queen)	75–135⁸	0⁹

Depending on the source, values may reflect direct measurements or calculated estimates. For comparison purposes, only data that were reported as or could be converted to mg/bee/day were included.

^†

Depending on the source, values may reflect direct measurements of nectar or sucrose solution consumption, or estimates of nectar consumption.

¹Tasei et al. 1994, ²Tasei et al. 2000, ³Cresswell et al. 2012, ⁴Laycock et al. 2012, ⁵USEPA et al. 2012, ⁶EFSA 2013, ⁷Heinrich 1972, ⁸Pomeroy 1979, ⁹USEPA et al. 2014, ¹⁰Řehoř et al. 2014, ¹¹Pereboom 2000, ¹²Smeets and Duchateau 2001, ¹³Tasei and Aupinel 2008, ¹⁵Přidal and Hofbauer 1996, ¹⁶Simpson 1955, ¹⁷Babendreier et al. 2004