The influence of available comb storage space on the performance of honey bee communication signals that regulate foragi
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Original article
The influence of available comb storage space on the performance of honey bee communication signals that regulate foraging Parry M. KIETZMAN1,2 , P. Kirk VISSCHER2 1
Department of Entomology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA Department of Entomology, University of California at Riverside, 900 University Ave., Riverside, CA 92521, USA
2
Received 2 December 2019 – Revised 16 July 2020 – Accepted 11 August 2020
Abstract – Numerous activities within honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies rely on feedback loops for organization at the group level. Many of the processes associated with the feedback loops organizing a honey bee colony’s activities are in striking parallel to other systems, such as intercellular interactions involved in motor neuron function, and principles derived from their study can be applied to these diverse fields, among others. This study looked at the communication signals honey bees employ while provisioning their nest with food to assess whether or not the bees use signals when their hive has no more available storage space. In this experiment, the storage space was alternated each day between no available space and ample space. The communication signals used by the bees were counted during each treatment and compared. When the hive had no storage space available, significantly more stop signals, which inhibit foraging, and tremble dances, which recruit more bees to unload incoming foragers, were observed. This suggests that the bees had noted the absence of storage space and were modifying their communication accordingly. Apis mellifera / behavior / communication / decision-making / foraging
1. INTRODUCTION In honey bees (Apis mellifera L.), the social recruitment behavior of foragers is driven by a network of excitatory and inhibitory communication signals (Seeley 1992, 1995; Kietzman and Visscher 2015). These include the waggle dance, tremble dance, and stop signal, which worker bees use to communicate with their nestmates while provisioning their nest with pollen and nectar collected from floral resources. These signals are delivered and received in concert by incoming foragers, prospective foragers, and the unloader bees
Corresponding author: P. Kietzman, [email protected]. Kietzman, [email protected] Manuscript editor: James Nieh
that take nectar from foragers and store it in the comb (Seeley 1992). The well-documented waggle dance communicates the distance and direction to a food source and helps recruit foragers to that site (von Frisch 1967). During the waggle dance, the dancer runs across the surface of the comb in a figure-eight pattern (von Frisch 1967). She shakes her body in the center of the figure-eight, creating the “waggle run” component of the dance, where the angle of the waggle run relative to a 0° vertical on a Cartesian plane communicates the direction of the food source relative to the sun’s azimuth (von Frisch 1967). The duration of the waggle run is associated with the distance of the food source from the hive. The dance increases in number of wag
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