Exploration and exploitation of food sources by social insect colonies: a revision of the scout-recruit concept |
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Authors: | Jacobus Christiaan Biesmeijer Han de Vries |
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Institution: | (1) Ethology and Socio-Ecology Group, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80.086, 3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands, NL |
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Abstract: | Social insect colonies need to explore and exploit multiple food sources simultaneously and efficiently. At the individual
level, this colony-level behaviour has been thought to be taken care of by two types of individual: scouts that independently
search for food, and recruits that are directed by nest mates to a food source. However, recent analyses show that this strict
division of labour between scouts and recruits is untenable. Therefore, a modified concept is presented here that comprises
the possible behavioural states of an individual forager (novice forager, scout, recruit, employed forager, unemployed experienced
forager, inspector and reactivated forager) and the transitions between them. The available empirical data are reviewed in
the light of both the old and the new concept, and probabilities for the different transitions are derived for the case of
the honey-bee. The modified concept distinguishes three types of foragers that may be involved in the exploration behaviour
of the colony: novice bees that become scouts, unemployed experienced bees that scout, and lost recruits, i.e. bees that discover
a food source other than the one to which they were directed to by their nest mates. An advantage of the modified concept
is that it allows for a better comparison of studies investigating the different roles performed by social insect foragers
during their individual foraging histories.
Received: 29 December 1999 / Revised: 25 February 2000 / Accepted: 16 October 2000 |
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Keywords: | Social insects Scout Recruit Communication Foraging |
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