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1.
James C. Nieh 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》1998,43(2):133-145
2.
Exploration and exploitation of food sources by social insect colonies: a revision of the scout-recruit concept 总被引:3,自引:3,他引:0
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 相似文献
3.
Summary A honey bee colony can skillfully choose among nectar sources. It will selectively exploit the most profitable source in an array and will rapidly shift its foraging efforts following changes in the array. How does this colony-level ability emerge from the behavior of individual bees? The answer lies in understanding how bees modulate their colony's rates of recruitment and abandonment for nectar sources in accordance with the profitability of each source. A forager modulates its behavior in relation to nectar source profitability: as profitability increases, the tempo of foraging increases, the intensity of dancing increases, and the probability of abandoning the source decreases. How does a forager assess the profitability of its nectar source? Bees accomplish this without making comparisons among nectar sources. Neither do the foragers compare different nectar sources to determine the relative profitability of any one source, nor do the food storers compare different nectar loads and indicate the relative profitability of each load to the foragers. Instead, each forager knows only about its particular nectar source and independently calculates the absolute profitability of its source. Even though each of a colony's foragers operates with extremely limited information about the colony's food sources, together they will generate a coherent colonylevel response to different food sources in which better ones are heavily exploited and poorer ones are abandoned. This is shown by a computer simulation of nectar-source selection by a colony in which foragers behave as described above. Nectar-source selection by honey bee colonies is a process of natural selection among alternative nectar sources as foragers from more profitable sources survive (continue visiting their source) longer and reproduce (recruit other foragers) better than do foragers from less profitable sources. Hence this colonial decision-making is based on decentralized control. We suggest that honey bee colonies possess decentralized decision-making because it combines effectiveness with simplicity of communication and computation within a colony.
Offprint requests to: T.D. Seeley 相似文献
4.
Self-organization in collective honeybee foraging: emergence of symmetry breaking,cross inhibition and equal harvest-rate distribution 总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1
De Vries and Biesmeijer described in 1998 an individual-oriented model that simulates the collective foraging behaviour of a colony of honeybees. Here we report how this model has been expanded and show how, through self-organization, three colony-level phenomena can emerge: symmetry breaking, cross inhibition and the equal harvest-rate distribution. Symmetry breaking is the phenomenon that the numbers of foragers visiting two equally profitable food sources will diverge after some time. Cross inhibition is the phenomenon that, by increasing the profitability of one of two equal food sources, the number of foragers visiting the other source will decrease. In some circumstances, the bees foraging on two sources of different profitabilities will be distributed between these sources such that the two average energy harvest rates are equal. We will refer to this phenomenon as the equal harvest-rate distribution. For each of these three phenomena, we show what the necessary behavioural rules to be followed by the individual forager bees are, and what the necessary circumstances are (that is, what values the model parameters should take) in order for these phenomena to arise. It seems that patch size and forager group size largely determine when each of these phenomena will arise. Experimenting with two types of currency, net gain rate and net gain efficiency, revealed that only gain rate may result in an equal harvest-rate distribution of foragers visiting different food sources. 相似文献
5.
Jacobus C. Biesmeijer Mark G. L. van Nieuwstadt Saskia Lukács Marinus J. Sommeijer 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》1998,42(2):107-116
Social insect foragers have to make foraging decisions based on information that may come from two different sources: information
learned and memorised through their own experience (“internal” information) and information communicated by nest mates or
directly obtained from their environment (“external” information). The role of these sources of information in decision-making
by foragers was studied observationally and experimentally in stingless bees of the genus Melipona. Once a Melipona forager had started its food-collecting career, its decisions to initiate, continue or stop its daily collecting activity
were mainly based upon previous experience (activity on previous days, the time at which foraging was initiated the day(s)
before, and, during the day, the success of the last foraging flights) and mediated through direct interaction with the food
source (load size harvested and time to collect a load). External information provided by returning foragers advanced the
start of foraging of experienced bees. Most inexperienced bees initiated their foraging day after successful foragers had
returned to the hive. The start of foraging by other inexperienced bees was stimulated by high waste-removal activity of nest
mates. By experimentally controlling the entries of foragers (hence external information input) it was shown that very low
levels of external information input had large effect on the departure of experienced foragers. After the return of a single
successful forager, or five foragers together, the rate of forager exits increased dramatically for 15 min. Only the first
and second entry events had large effect; later entries influenced forager exit patterns only slightly. The results show that
Melipona foragers make decisions based upon their own experience and that communication stimulates these foragers if it concerns the
previously visited source. We discuss the organisation of individual foraging in Melipona and Apis mellifera and are led to the conclusion that these species behave very similarly and that an information-integration model (derived
from Fig. 1) could be a starting point for future research on social insect foraging.
Received: 16 April 1997 / Accepted after revision: 30 August 1997 相似文献
6.
Arjan M. Boonman Martijn Boonman Frank Bretschneider Wim A. van de Grind 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》1998,44(2):99-107
Daubenton's bat, a trawling vespertilionid bat species, hunts for insects that fly close to, or rest on, the water surface.
During summer, many ponds at which Daubenton's bats hunt become gradually covered with duckweed. The purpose of this study
was to investigate the effects of duckweed cover on the hunting behaviour of Daubenton's bats and on the ultrasound-reflecting
properties of the water surface. Our study revealed the following. (1) Daubenton's bat avoids water surfaces covered with
duckweed. (2) Prey abundance was related to the number of foraging Daubenton's bats but was independent of duckweed cover.
(3) When mealworms were presented among standardized amounts of duckweed to naturally foraging Daubenton's bats, they caught
significantly less mealworms when the duckweed cover was increased. (4) Measurements with ultrasonic signals show that a water
surface covered with duckweed returns a much stronger background echo at small angles (i.e. parallel to the water surface)
compared to an uncovered water surface. It seems likely that a cover of duckweed on the water surface interferes with prey
detection by masking the echoes returning from prey. (5) It was relatively difficult for the bats to discriminate small patches
of duckweed from mealworms. The proposed discrimination mechanism for this trawling bat species suggests that single duckweed
patches can also be mistaken for natural prey by Daubenton's bats.
Received: 4 January 1998 / Accepted after revision: 19 July 1998 相似文献
7.
Honey bee foragers as sensory units of their colonies 总被引:5,自引:0,他引:5
Thomas D. Seeley 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》1994,34(1):51-62
Forager honey bees function not only as gatherers of food for their colonies, but also as sensory units shaped by natural selection to gather information regarding the location and profitability of forage sites. They transmit this information to colony members by means of waggle dances. To investigate the way bees transduce the stimulus of nectar-source profitability into the response of number of waggle runs, I performed experiments in which bees were stimulated with a sucrose solution feeder of known profitability and their dance responses were videorecorded. The results suggest that several attributes of this transduction process are adaptations to enhance a bee's effectiveness in reporting on a forage site. (1) Bees register the profitability of a nectar source not by sensing the energy gain per foraging trip or the rate of energy gain per trip, but evidently by sensing the energetic efficiency of their foraging. Perhaps this criterion of nectar-source profitability has been favored by natural selection because the foraging gains of honey bees are typically limited by energy expenditure rather than time availability. (2) There is a linear relationship between the stimulus of energetic efficiency of foraging and the response of number of waggle runs per dance. Such a simple stimulus-response function appears adequate because the range of suprathreshold stimuli (max/min ratio of about 10) is far smaller than the range of responses (max/min ratio of about 100). Although all bees show a linear stimulus-response function, there are large differences among individuals in both the response threshold and the slope of the stimulus-response function. This variation gives the colony a broader dynamic range in responding to food sources than if all bees had identical thresholds of dance response. (3) There is little or no adaptation in the dance response to a strong stimulus (tonic response). Thus each dancing bee reports on the current level of profitability of her forage site rather than the changes in its profitability. This seems appropriate since presumably it is the current profitability of a forage site, not the change in its profitability, which determines a site's attractiveness to other bees. (4) The level of forage-site quality that is the threshold for dancing is tuned by the bees in relation to forage availability. Bees operate with a lower dance threshold when forage is sparse than when it is abundant. Thus a colony utilizes input about a wide range of forage sites when food is scarce, but filters out input about low-reward sites when food is plentiful. (5) A dancing bee does not present her information in one spot within the hive but instead distributes it over much of the dance floor. Consequently, the dances for different forage sites are mixed together on the dance floor. This helps each bee following the dances to take a random sample of the dance information, which is appropriate for the foraging strategy of a honey bee colony since it is evidently designed to allocate foragers among forage sites in proportion to their profitability. 相似文献
8.
Studies of the otariids (fur seals and sea lions), a highly sexually dimorphic group, have provided conflicting evidence of
differential maternal expenditure in male and female offspring and, thus, suggestions that they conform to predictions of
investment theory are equivocal. Since the mid-1970s, a diversity of research on Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) including studies of their reproductive ecology, lactation energetics, and foraging behaviour have been conducted at Bird
Island, South Georgia that have resulted in one of the more complete and diverse data sets for any species of otariid. These
long-term data were reviewed to determine whether there was any evidence to support that differential maternal expenditure
occurred in Antarctic fur seals. Most of the data examined were collected during five consecutive austral summers from 1988
through 1992 and included years in which local food resources were abundant and scarce. We were unable to detect differences
in the sex ratios of pups at birth or sex-biased differences in growth rates estimated from serial data, the number of foraging
trips made, the duration of attendance ashore, diving behaviour, suckling behaviour, or milk consumption in any year and in
the duration of foraging trips or age at weaning in 2 of 3 years. In addition, we found no evidence of greater reproductive
costs between mothers with sons or daughters relative to their reproductive performance the following year. In contrast, sex-biased
differences were only found in the duration of foraging trips in 1990, the age at weaning in 1988, and consistently in growth
rates estimated from cross-sectional data. We suggest that differential maternal expenditure does not occur in Antarctic fur
seals because male pups probably do not gain greater benefit from additional maternal expenditure than female pups. After
weaning, males experience a period of rapid juvenile growth over 3–4 years during which time body mass nearly trebles. This
growth will almost certainly be dependent upon available food resources then rather than on any maternal expenditure received
over the first 4 months of life and, thus, the assumptions of the Trivers and Willard hypothesis are probably invalid for
Antarctic fur seals.
Received: 10 July 1996 / Accepted after revision: 3 March 1997 相似文献
9.
In an experimental set-up, a colony of the stingless bee Melipona fasciata demonstrated its ability to choose the better of two nectar sources. This colony pattern was a result of the following individual
behavioural decisions: continue foraging, abandon the feeder, restart foraging and initiate foraging. Only very rarely did
individuals switch from one feeder to the other. With the first combination of a rich (2.7 M) and a poor (0.8 M) feeder M. fasciata behaved differently from Apis mellifera. Recruitment occurred to both feeders and the poor feeder was not abandoned completely. When the poor feeder was set to 0.4 M,
M. fasciata abandoned the poor feeder rapidly and allocated more foragers to the rich feeder. These patterns were similar to those reported
for A. mellifera with the first combination of feeders. Over a sequence of 4 days, experienced bees increasingly determined the colony patterns,
and the major function of communication between workers became the reactivation of experienced foragers. The foragers modulated
their behaviour not only according to the profitability of the feeder, but also according to previous experience with profitability
switches. Thus, experience and communication together regulated colony foraging behaviour. These findings and the results of studies with honeybees suggest
that M. fasciata and honeybees use similar decision-making mechanisms and only partly different tools.
Received: 21 December 1998 / Accepted: 5 January 1999 相似文献
10.
We studied the extent to which worker honey bees acquire information from waggle dances throughout their careers as foragers. Small groups of foragers were monitored from time of orientation flights to time of death and all in-hive behaviors relating to foraging were recorded. In the context of a novice forager finding her first food source, 60% of the bees relied, at least in part, on acquiring information from waggle dances (being recruited) rather than searching independently (scouting). In the context of an experienced forager whose foraging has been interrupted, 37% of the time the bees resumed foraging by following waggle dances (being reactivated) rather than examining the food source on their own (inspecting). And in the context of an experienced forager engaged in foraging, 17% of the time the bees initiated a foraging trip by following a waggle dance. Such dance following was observed much more often after an unsuccessful than after a successful foraging trip. Successful foragers often followed dances just briefly, perhaps to confirm that the kind of flowers they had been visiting were still yielding forage. Overall, waggle dance following for food discovery accounted for 12–25% of all interactions with dancers (9% by novice foragers and 3–16% by experienced foragers) whereas dance following for reactivation and confirmation accounted for the other 75–88% (26% for reactivation and 49–62% for confirmation). We conclude that foragers make extensive use of the waggle dance not only to start work at new, unfamiliar food sources but also to resume work at old, familiar food sources. 相似文献
11.
Queen control of egg fertilization in the honey bee 总被引:3,自引:0,他引:3
The study investigated the precision with which honey bee queens can control the fertilization of the eggs they lay. Because
males and workers are reared in different-sized cells, the honey bee is one of the few Hymenoptera in which it is possible
for the experimenter to know which type of egg a queen “intends” to lay. Eggs were collected from both worker and drone (male)
cells from four honey bee colonies. Ploidy of the embryo was determined using polymorphic DNA microsatellites. All 169 eggs
taken from worker cells were heterozygous at at least one microsatellite locus showing that the egg was fertilized. All 129
eggs taken from drone cells gave a single band at the B124 locus, strongly suggesting haploidy. These data show that honey
bee queens have great, and quite possibly complete, ability to control the fertilization of the eggs they lay. Data from the
literature suggest that in two species of parasitoid Hymenoptera (Copidosoma floridanum, Colpoclypeus florus) females have great, but not complete, ability to control fertilization.
Received: 23 December 1997 / Accepted after revision: 17 May 1998 相似文献
12.
Recent investigations have indicated that animals are able to use chemical cues of predators to assess the magnitude of predation
risk. One possible source of such cues is predator diet. Chemical cues may also be important in the development of antipredator
behaviour, especially in animals that possess chemical alarm substances. Tadpoles of the common toad (Bufo bufo) are unpalatable to most vertebrate predators and have an alarm substance. Tadpoles of the common frog (Rana temporaria) lack both these characters. We experimentally studied how predator diet, previous experience of predators and body size
affect antipredator behaviour in these two tadpole species. Late-instar larvae of the dragonfly Aeshna juncea were used as predators. The dragonfly larvae were fed a diet exclusively of insects, R. temporaria tadpoles or B. bufo tadpoles. R. temporaria tadpoles modified their behaviour according to the perceived predation risk. Depending on predator diet, the tadpoles responded
with weak antipredatory behaviour (triggered by insect-fed predators) or strong behaviour (triggered by tadpole-fed predators)
with distinct spatial avoidance and lowered activity level. The behaviour of B. bufo in predator diet treatments was indistinguishable from that in the control treatment. This lack of antipredator behaviour
is probably related to the effective post-encounter defenses and more intense competitive regime experienced by B. bufo. The behaviour of both tadpole species was dependent on body size, but this was not related to predator treatments. Our results
also indicate that antipredator behaviour is largely innate in tadpoles of both species and is not modified by a brief exposure
to predators.
Received: 22 August 1996 / Accepted after revision: 31 January 1997 相似文献
13.
B. Sklepkovych 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》1997,40(5):287-296
Foraging competition in Siberian jay groups was examined in relation to dominance and kinship to determine whether juvenile
offspring, by associating with adults, gained in food acquisition relative to juvenile immigrants. Members of the adult pair
were dominant over juvenile cohort members and males were dominant to females, although an inter-sexual hierarchy, with male
juveniles occasionally overlapping adult females, was suggested. Few competitive asymmetries were found between adults and
retained offspring or adults and immigrant juveniles when they were competing for food together, but in kin and non-kin foraging
groups, respectively. Male offspring visited the bait site more frequently than adult males, and female immigrants spent less
time at the bait site than adult females. Under these circumstances, hoarding activities may limit the ability of alpha members
to control resources. In mixed groups containing both juvenile offspring and juvenile immigrants, no difference was found
in the number of visits made to the bait site, although load sizes and foraging rates were lower for immigrant birds. Retained
juveniles obtained greater load sizes and foraging rates when associating with adults. The social dominance of parents suggests
that they control juvenile foraging. Although offspring benefit in the presence of adults, adults may incur a cost to their
restraint by spending more time at the bait site when competing with immigrants. These results extend conclusions from previous
work describing the role of selective tolerance by adults which relaxes competition with retained offspring in Siberian jay
winter groups. The present findings suggest that offspring benefit in both immediate and future energy gains, which may have
a direct influence on survival.
Received: 18 September 1996 / Accepted after revision: 26 January 1997 相似文献
14.
The regulation of protein collection through pollen foraging plays an important role in pollination and in the life of bee
colonies that adjust their foraging to natural variation in pollen protein quality and temporal availability. Bumble bees
occupy a wide range of habitats from the Nearctic to the Tropics in which they play an important role as pollinators. However,
little is known about how a bumble bee colony regulates pollen collection. We manipulated protein quality and colony pollen
stores in lab-reared colonies of the native North American bumble bee, Bombus impatiens. We debut evidence that bumble bee colony foraging levels and pollen storage behavior are tuned to the protein quality (range
tested: 17–30% protein by dry mass) of pollen collected by foragers and to the amount of stored pollen inside the colony.
Pollen foraging levels (number of bees exiting the nest) significantly increased by 55%, and the frequency with which foragers
stored pollen in pots significantly increased by 233% for pollen with higher compared to lower protein quality. The number
of foragers exiting the nest significantly decreased (by 28%) when we added one pollen load equivalent each 5 min to already
high intranidal pollen stores. In addition, pollen odor pumped into the nest is sufficient to increase the number of exiting
foragers by 27%. Foragers directly inspected pollen pots at a constant rate over 24 h, presumably to assess pollen levels.
Thus, pollen stores can act as an information center regulating colony-level foraging according to pollen protein quality
and colony need.
An erratum to this article can be found at 相似文献
15.
Hasan Al Toufailia Margaret J. Couvillon Francis L. W. Ratnieks Christoph Grüter 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2013,67(4):549-556
Returning honey bee foragers perform waggle dances to inform nestmate foragers about the presence, location and odour of profitable food sources and new nest sites. The aim of this study is to investigate how the characteristics of waggle dances for natural food sources and environmental factors affect dance follower behaviour. Because food source profitability tends to decrease with increasing foraging distance, we hypothesised that the attractiveness of a dance, measured as the number of dance followers and their attendance, decreases with increasing distance to the advertised food location. Additionally, we determined whether time of year and dance signal noise, quantified as the variation in waggle run direction and duration, affect dance follower behaviour. Our results suggest that bees follow fewer waggle runs as the food source distance increases, but that they invest more time in following each dance. This is because waggle run duration increases with increasing foraging distance. Followers responded to increased angular noise in dances indicating more distant food sources by following more waggle runs per dance than when angular noise was low. The number of dance followers per dancing bee was also affected by the time of year and varied among colonies. Our results provide evidence that both noise in the message, that is variation in the direction component, and the message itself, that is the distance of the advertised food location, affect dance following. These results indicate that dance followers may pay attention to the costs and benefits associated with using dance information. 相似文献
16.
Xavier Lambin 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》1997,40(6):363-372
Numerous accounts of partial or complete breeding dispersal by adult females reported in the literature on microtines have
been interpreted as maternal bequeathal. However, for most species, no causal relationship between a female's movements between
successive litters and the settlement of her offspring in the natal range has been demonstrated. I tested predictions from
the bequeathal hypothesis using data from an intensive study of Townsend's voles where genetical relationship had been determined
by marking most pups in the maternal nest before weaning. After correcting statistically for temporal changes in the distance
moved between successive litters I rejected the following predictions: (1) that females with one or several daughters of reproductive
age should be more likely to disperse or disperse farther between successive births than females without such daughters; (2)
that mothers should be more likely to bequeath their range to their daughters in spring when the latter would gain most from
having ready access to a breeding range; (3) that daughters benefit from their mother abandoning the natal range through an
increase in their probability of recruitment; and (4) that daughters actually use the home range vacated by their mother.
I critically reassess the empirical studies quoted as evidence that breeding dispersal is a form of parental investment in
microtines and other mammals. Most empirical studies cited in support of the bequeathal hypothesis often only contain anecdotal
reports of movements by breeding females or do not mention it as one of its possible adaptive functions. Some studies contain
evidence only consistent with the bequeathal hypothesis whereas others are incompatible with this explanation. Documented
evidence of bequeathal comes exclusively from species which rely on a semi-permanent resource such as a midden, mound or burrow.
I conclude that there is no indication from Townsend's voles or any other microtines that females abandon their breeding range
to their female offspring as a form of parental investment.
Received: 27 February 1996 / Accepted after revision: 1 March 1997 相似文献
17.
Walter M. Farina 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》1996,38(1):59-64
Dancing and trophallactic behaviour of forager honey bees, Apis mellifera ligustica >Spinola, that returned from an automatic feeder with a regulated flow rate of 50% weight-to-weight sucrose solution (range:
0.76–7.65 μl/min) were studied in an observation hive. Behavioural parameters of dancing, such as probability, duration and
dance tempo, increased with the nectar flow rate, though with very different response curves among bees. For trophallaxis
(i.e. mouth-to-mouth exchange of food), the frequency of giving-contacts and the transfer rate of the nectar increased with
the nectar flow rate. After unloading, foragers often approached other nest mates and begged for food before returning to
the food source. This behaviour was less frequent at higher nectar flow rates. These results show that the profitability of
a food source in terms of nectar flow rate had a quantitative representation in the hive through quantitative changes in trophallactic
and dancing behaviour. The role of trophallaxis as a communication channel during recruitment is discussed.
Received: 14 January 1995/Accepted after revision: 14 August 1995 相似文献
18.
We analyzed the foraging and recruitment activity of single foragers ( Apis mellifera), exploiting low reward rates of sucrose solution. Single employed foragers (test bees) were allowed to collect 2.0 m sucrose solution delivered by a rate-feeder located at 160 m from the hive for 2 h. Flow rates varied between 1.4 and 5.5 µl/min. The individual behavior of the test bees was registered both at the hive and the food source, and the social output was calculated as the number of incoming bees arriving at the feeder per hour (henceforth: arrival rate). Incoming bees were captured once they landed at the feeder and assigned to one of three categories according to their foraging experience and hive interactions with the test bee: inspector, reactivated, or inexperienced bees. Both the waggle-runs performed per hour of foraging by test bees and the social output attained, increased with the reward rate. Also the number of hive-stays and the trophallactic-offering contacts performed by test bees were positively correlated with the arrival rate. For the highest reward rates, the duration of Nasonov-gland exposure at the feeding place was higher, and the arrival of most of the incoming bees occurred shortly after the test bee landed at the feeding platform. Thus, in addition to hive-interactions, landing of incoming bees at the food source is promoted by olfactory and/or visual information provided by the test bees. The proportions of inspector, reactivated, and inexperienced bees changed depending on the reward rate offered. Therefore, not only the occurrence and intensity of the recruitment-related behaviors performed by the test bees, but also the stimulation required by each category of incoming bees, determined the social output observed. 相似文献
19.
To examine whether the interaction between bumblebees, Bombus ignitus, reduces their foraging area, we conducted bee-removal experiments in a net cage. In the cage, we set potted Salvia farinacea plants, allowed bumblebees to forage freely on those plants, and followed their plant-to-plant movements to identify a bee with a relatively small foraging area. We then removed all the other foraging bees, except for the bee with a small foraging area, and observed the change of the foraging area of the focal bee under conditions of no interaction with other bees. After the removal of the other bees, all five bees tested enlarged their foraging areas, suggesting that the interaction between bees is an important determinant of their foraging areas. The result also means that bumblebees are able to adjust their foraging areas in response to other foragers, indicating the necessity for future studies to clarify what cues bees use to interact with other bees. Moreover, after the removal treatments, all five bees showed temporary increases in the number of flower probes per plant. This can be explained by their optimal foraging according to the old average intake rate for the plant population and by the delayed changes in response to the new high average energy intake rate after the bee-removal treatments.Communicated by M. Giurfa 相似文献
20.
Foraging animals can acquire new information about food sources either individually or socially, but they can also opt to rely on information that they have already acquired, termed “personal information”. Although social information can provide an adaptive shortcut to new resources, recent theory predicts that investing too much time in acquiring new information can be detrimental. Here, we investigate whether foraging bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) strategically prioritize personal information unless there is evidence of environmental change. All bees in our study had personal information that one species of artificial flower was rewarding, and bees in the scent group then experienced social information about an alternative-scented species inside the nest, while a control group did not. On their next foraging bout, bees in both groups overwhelmingly used personal information when deciding where to forage. When bees subsequently learnt that the rewards offered by their preferred species had dwindled, bees that had social information were no quicker to abandon their personal information than control bees, but once they had sampled the alternative flowers, they showed greater commitment to that species than control bees. Thus, we found no evidence that social information is particularly important when personal information fails to produce rewards (a “copy when established behaviour is unproductive” strategy). Instead, bees used social information specifically to complement personal information. 相似文献