Document is current

Article History

Received: 31 July 2025

Revised: 23 October 2025

Accepted: 7 November 2025

First Online: 27 November 2025

Declarations

:

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: Land use change affects bee populations by changing their food supply and nutritional health. We found that rural land use types are associated with larger eggs. To understand the significance of this egg-size plasticity, we measured worker size and foraging efforts from bees of both large and smaller eggs. Bees from larger eggs were similar in body size, but they performed ~ 24% more foraging trips. The duration of each foraging trip was not affected by egg size. Neither body size nor lifespan were associated with egg size, and the mechanism causing increased foraging remains unknown. Further studies are needed to clarify how egg size may fit into a broader suite of colony-level responses to environmental change and nutritional stress.