The effect of repeated vibration signals on worker behavior in established and newly founded colonies of the honey bee, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Apis mellifera</Emphasis> |
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Authors: | Tuan T Cao Kelly M Hyland Alana Malechuk Lee A Lewis Stanley S Schneider |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC 28262, USA;(2) Present address: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA;(3) Present address: Department of Entomology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA;(4) Present address: Department of Biology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109, USA;(5) Present address: Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC 28223, USA |
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Abstract: | Communication signals used in animal social interactions are frequently performed repetitively, but the function of this repetition
is often not well understood. We examined the effects of signal repetition by investigating the behavior of worker honey bees
that received differing numbers of vibration signals in established and newly founded colonies, which could use signal repetition
differently to help adjust task allocations to the labor demands associated with the different stages of colony development.
In both colony types, more than half of all monitored workers received more than one vibration signal, and approximately 12%
received ≥5 signals during a given 20-min observation period. Vibrated recipients exhibited greater activity and task performance
than same-age non-vibrated controls at all levels of signal activity. However, vibrated workers showed similar levels of task
performance, movement rates, cell inspection rates, and trophallactic exchanges regardless of the number of signals received.
Thus, the repeated performance of vibration signals on individual bees did not cause cumulative increases in the activity
of certain workers, but rather may have functioned to maintain relatively constant levels of activity and task performance
among groups of recipients. The established and newly founded colonies did not differ in the extent to which individual workers
received the different numbers of vibration signals or in the levels of activity stimulated by repeated signals. Previous
work has suggested that compared to established colonies, newly founded colonies have a greater number of vibrators that perform
signals on a greater proportion of the workers they contact. Taken in concert, these results suggest that vibration signal
repetition may help to adjust task allocations to the different stages of colony development by helping to maintain similar
levels of activity among a greater total number of recipients, rather than by eliciting cumulative effects that cause certain
recipients to work harder than others. |
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Keywords: | Vibration signal Modulatory communication Signal repetition Collaborative labor Social organization |
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