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1.
Honey bee foragers specialize on collecting pollen and nectar. Pollen foraging behavior is modulated by at least two stimuli
within the nest: the presence of brood pheromone and young larvae and the quantity of stored pollen. Genetic variation in
pollen foraging behavior has been demonstrated repeatedly. We used selected high and low pollen-hoarding strains of bees that
differ dramatically in the quantity of pollen collected to determine if the observed differences in foraging could be explained
by differential responses to brood stimuli. Workers from the high and low pollen-hoarding strains and wild-type bees were
co-fostered in colonies with either brood or no brood. As expected based on previous studies, returning high pollen-hoarding
foragers collected heavier pollen loads and lighter nectar loads than low pollen-hoarding bees. Effects of brood treatment
were also observed; bees exposed to brood collected heavier pollen loads and initiated foraging earlier than those from broodless
colonies. More specifically, brood treatment resulted in increased pollen foraging in high pollen-hoarding bees but did not
affect pollen foraging in low pollen-hoarding bees, suggesting that high pollen-hoarding bees are more sensitive to the presence
of brood. However, response to brood stimuli does not sufficiently explain the differences in foraging behavior between the
strains since these differences persisted even in the absence of brood. 相似文献
2.
Division of labor, where thousands of individuals perform specific behavioral acts repeatedly and non-randomly, is the hallmark
of insect societies. Virtually nothing is known about the underlying neurophysiological processes that direct individuals
into specific behavioral roles. We demonstrate that sensory-physiological variation in the perception of sucrose in honeybees
measured when they are 1 week old correlates with their foraging behavior 2–3 weeks later. Workers with the lowest response
thresholds became water foragers, followed with increasing response thresholds by pollen foragers, nectar foragers, bees collecting
both pollen and nectar, and finally those returning to the colony empty (water<pollen<nectar<both<empty). Sucrose concentrations
of nectar loads were positively correlated with response thresholds measured on 1-week-old bees. These results demonstrated
how the variable response thresholds of a sensory-physiological process, the perception of sucrose, is causally linked to
the division of labor of foraging.
Received. 28 June 1999 / Received in revised form: 2 November 1999 / Accepted: 20 November 1999 相似文献
3.
Tamar Drezner-Levy Brian H. Smith Sharoni Shafir 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2009,64(1):135-148
Honey bee foragers may collect nectar, pollen, water, or propolis, and their foraging specialization has been associated with
several behavioral traits. By conditioning of the proboscis extension response (PER), we compared the performance of foragers
that collected nectar, pollen, both nectar and pollen, or water in several learning and choice assays. Foragers were first
tested in a three-trial olfactory associative learning assay. For further tests, we selected only good learners that responded
in two out of three conditioning trials. One group was tested in an additional olfactory associative learning assay involving
different reward volumes and concentrations. Another group was tested for risk sensitivity in a two-alternative forced-choice
PER procedure and then in a latent inhibition (LI) assay. Levels of acquisition in olfactory associative learning were highest
in pollen and water foragers, and better acquisition was associated with collection of heavier pollen loads and smaller and
lighter nectar loads of lower sugar concentration. Among the good learners, pollen foragers still showed better acquisition
than nectar foragers when rewarded with several volumes and concentrations of sucrose solution. Pollen and nectar foragers
were equally risk averse, preferring a constant reward to a variable one, and choice was not affected by pollen load weight.
Contrary to a previous study, pollen and nectar foragers were similarly affected by LI. We discuss possible explanations for
the discrepancy between the two studies. Overall, our results suggest that differences between foraging groups in sensitivity
to various stimuli may not correspond to differences in choice behavior. 相似文献
4.
Summary
Polybia sericea (Olivier) (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) foragers were trained to visit experimental foraging plots and tests were conducted to determine the role of visual, olfactory, and chemotactile cues in prey location. Foragers approached prey from downwind and hovered downwind of visual and olfactory stimuli. Olfactory cues were more likely to elicit landing than were visual cues. Biting of potential prey was most consistently elicited by a combination of visual, tactile, and chemotactile cues. Foragers encountering large prey carried a piece back to the nest and returned for prey remains. These returning foragers used visual cues to direct intensive aerial search; olfactory prey cues elicited landing. 相似文献
5.
In honeybees, as in other highly eusocial species, tasks are performed by individual workers, but selection for worker task
phenotypes occurs at the colony level. We investigated the effect of colony-level selection for pollen storage levels on the
foraging behavior of individual honeybee foragers to determine (1) the relationship between genotype and phenotypic expression
of foraging traits at the individual level and (2) how genetically based variation in worker task phenotype is integrated
into colony task organization. We placed workers from lines selected at the colony level for high or low pollen stores together
with hybrid workers into a common hive environment with controlled access to resources. Workers from the selected lines showed
reciprocal variation in pollen and nectar collection. High-pollen-line foragers collected pollen preferentially, and low-
pollen-line workers collected nectar, indicating that the two tasks covary genetically. Hybrid workers were not intermediate
in phenotype, but instead showed directional dominance for nectar collection. We monitored the responses of workers from the
selected strains to changes in internal (colony) and external (resource) stimulus levels for pollen foraging to measure the
interaction between genotypic variation in foraging behavior and stimulus environment. Under low-stimulus conditions, the
foraging group was over-represented by high-pollen-line workers. However, the evenness in distribution of the focal genetic
groups increased as foraging stimuli increased. These data are consistent with a model where task choice is a consequence
of genetically based response thresholds, and where genotypic diversity allows colony flexibility by providing a range of
stimulus thresholds.
Received: 3 May 1999 / Received in revised form: 22 December 1999 / Accepted: 23 January 2000 相似文献
6.
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
7.
The concept of a suite of foraging behaviors was introduced as a set of traits showing associative directional change as a characterization of adaptive evolution. I report how naturally selected differential sucrose response thresholds directionally affected a suite of honey bee foraging behaviors. Africanized and European honey bees were tested for their proboscis extension response thresholds to ascending sucrose concentrations, reared in common European colonies and, captured returning from their earliest observed foraging flight. Race constrained sucrose response threshold such that Africanized bees had significantly lower sucrose response thresholds. A Cox proportional hazards regression model of honey bee race and sucrose response threshold indicated that Africanized bees were 29% (P<0.01) more at risk to forage over the 30-day experimental period. Sucrose response threshold organized age of first foraging such that each unit decrease in sucrose response threshold increased risk to forage by 14.3% (P<0.0001). Africanized bees were more likely to return as pollen and water foragers than European foragers. Africanized foragers returned with nectar that was significantly less concentrated than European foragers. A comparative analysis of artificial and naturally selected populations with differential sucrose response thresholds and the common suite of directional change in foraging behaviors is discussed. A suite of foraging behaviors changed with a change in sucrose response threshold that appeared as a product of functional ecological adaptation.Communicated by R.F.A. Moritz 相似文献
8.
Insect societies are important models for evolutionary biology and sociobiology. The complexity of some eusocial insect societies
appears to arise from self-organized task allocation and group cohesion. One of the best-supported models explaining self-organized
task allocation in social insects is the response threshold model, which predicts specialization due to inter-individual variability
in sensitivity to task-associated stimuli. The model explains foraging task specialization among honeybee workers, but the
factors underlying the differences in individual sensitivity remain elusive. Here, we propose that in honeybees, sensory sensitivity
correlates with individual differences in the number of sensory structures, as it does in solitary species. Examining European
and Africanized honeybees, we introduce and test the hypothesis that body size and/or sensory allometry is associated with
foraging task preferences and resource exploitation. We focus on common morphological measures and on the size and number
of structures associated with olfactory sensitivity. We show that the number of olfactory sensilla is greater in pollen and
water foragers, which are known to exhibit higher sensory sensitivity, compared to nectar foragers. These differences are
independent of the distribution of size within a colony. Our data also suggest that body mass and number of olfactory sensilla
correlate with the concentration of nectar gathered by workers, and with the size of pollen loads they carry. We conclude
that sensory allometry, but not necessarily body size, is associated with resource exploitation in honeybees and that the
differences in number of sensilla may underlie the observed differences in sensitivity between bees specialized on water,
pollen and nectar collection. 相似文献
9.
Individual and colony-level foraging behaviors were evaluated in response to changes in the quantity or nutritional quality of pollen stored within honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies. Colonies were housed in vertical, three-frame observation hives situated inside a building, with entrances leading to the exterior. Before receiving treatments, all colonies were deprived of pollen for 5 days and pollen foragers were marked. In one treatment group, colony pollen reserves were quantitatively manipulated to a low or high level, either by starving colonies of pollen or by providing them with a fully provisioned frame of pollen composed of mixed species. In another treatment group, pollen reserves were qualitatively manipulated by removing pollen stores from colonies and replacing them with low- or high-protein pollen supplements. After applying treatments, foraging rates were measured four times per day and pollen pellets were collected from experienced and inexperienced foragers to determine their weight, species composition, and protein content. Honeybee colonies responded to decreases in the quantity or quality of pollen reserves by increasing the proportion of pollen foragers in their foraging populations, without increasing the overall foraging rate. Manipulation of pollen stores had no effect on the breadth of floral species collected by colonies, or their preferences for the size or protein content of pollen grains. In addition, treatments had no effect on the weight of pollen loads collected by individual foragers or the number of floral species collected per foraging trip. However, significant changes in foraging behavior were detected in relation to the experience level of foragers. Irrespective of treatment group, inexperienced foragers exerted greater effort by collecting heavier pollen loads and also sampled their floral environment more extensively than experienced foragers. Overall, our results indicate that honeybees respond to deficiencies in the quantity or quality of their pollen reserves by increasing the gross amount of pollen returned to the colony, rather than by specializing in collecting pollen with a greater protein content. Individual pollen foragers appear to be insensitive to the quality of pollen they collect, indicating that colony-level feedback is necessary to regulate the flow of protein to and within the colony. Colonies may respond to changes in the quality of their pollen stores by adjusting the numbers of inexperienced to experienced foragers within their foraging populations. 相似文献
10.
There has now been an abundance of research conducted to explore genetic bases that underlie learning performance in the honey bee (Apis mellifera). This work has progressed to the point where studies now seek to relate genetic traits that underlie learning ability to learning in field-based foraging problems faced by workers. Accordingly, the focus of our research is to explore the correlation between laboratory-based performance using an established learning paradigm and field-based foraging behavior. To evaluate learning ability, selected lines were established by evaluating queens and drones in a proboscis extension reflex (PER) conditioning procedure to measure learning in a laboratory paradigm—latent inhibition (LI). Hybrid queens were then produced from our lines selected for high and low levels of LI and inseminated with semen from many drones chosen at random. The genetically diverse worker progeny were then evaluated for expression of LI and for preference of pollen and/or nectar during foraging. Foragers from several different queens, and which had resulted from fertilization by any of several different drone fathers, were collected as they returned from foraging flights and analyzed for pollen and nectar contents. They were subsequently evaluated for expression of LI. Our research revealed that pollen foragers exhibited stronger learning, both in the presence (excitatory conditioning) and absence (LI) of reinforcement. The heightened overall learning ability demonstrated by pollen foragers suggests that pollen foragers are in general more sensitive to a large number of environmental stimuli. This mechanism could contribute toward explanations of colony-level regulation of foraging patterns among workers.Communicated by R. Page 相似文献
11.
Two-way selection for quantities of stored pollen resulted in the production of high and low pollen hoarding strains of honey bees (Apis mellifera L.). Strains differed in areas of stored pollen after a single generation of selection and, by the third generation, the high strain colonies stored an average 6 times more pollen than low strain colonies. Colony-level organizational components that potentially affect pollen stores were identified that varied genetically within and between these strains. Changes occurred in several of these components, in addition to changes in the selected trait. High strain colonies had a significantly higher proportion of foragers returning with loads of pollen, however, high and low strain colonies had equal total numbers of foragers Colony rates of intake of pollen and nectar were not independent. Selection resulted in an increase in the number of pollen collectors and a decrease in the number of nectar collectors in high strain colonies, while the reciprocal relationship occurred in the low strain. High and low strain colonies also demonstrated different diurnal foraging patterns as measured by the changing proportions of returning pollen foragers. High strain colonies of generation 3 contained significantly less brood than did low strain colonies, a consequence of a constraint on colony growth resulting from a fixed nest volume and large quantities of stored pollen. These components represent selectable colony-level traits on which natural selection can act and shape the social organization of honey bee coloniesCommunicated by R.F.A. Moritz 相似文献
12.
Paula C. Díaz Christoph Grüter Walter M. Farina 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2007,61(10):1589-1597
Floral scents are important information cues used to organize foraging-related tasks in honeybees. The waggle dance, apart
from encoding spatial information about food sources, might facilitate the transfer of olfactory information by increasing
the dissipation of volatiles brought back by successful foragers. By assuming that food scents are more intensive on specific
body parts of returning foragers, i.e., the posterior legs of pollen foragers and mouthparts of nectar foragers, we quantified
the interactions between hive mates and foragers during dances advertising different types of food sources. For natural sources,
a higher proportion of hive mates contacted the hind legs of pollen dancers (where the pollen loads were located) with their
heads compared to non-pollen dancers. On the other hand, the proportion of head-to-head contacts was higher for non-pollen
foragers during the waggle runs. When the food scent was manipulated, dancers collecting scented sugar solution had a higher
proportion of head-to-head contacts and a lower proportion around their hind legs compared to dancers collecting unscented
solution. The presence of food odors did not affect in-hive behaviors of dancers, but it increased the number of trophallaxes
in-between waggle runs (i.e., during circle phases). These results suggest that the honeybee dance facilitates the olfactory
information transfer between incoming foragers and hive mates, and we propose that excitatory displays in other social insect
species serve the same purpose. While recent empirical and theoretical findings suggested that the colony level foraging benefits
of the spatial information encoded in the waggle dance vary seasonally and with habitats, the role of the dance as a compound
signal not only indicating the presence of a profitable resource but also amplifying the information transfer regarding floral
odors may be important under any ecological circumstances. 相似文献
13.
Foraging behavior and the mechanisms that regulate foraging activity are important components of social organization. Here
we test the hypothesis that brood pheromone modulates the sucrose response threshold of bees. Recently the honeybee proboscis
extension response to sucrose has been identified as a ”window” into a bee’s perception of sugar. The sucrose response threshold
measured in the first week of adult life, prior to foraging age, predicts forage choice. Bees with low response thresholds
are more likely to be pollen foragers and bees with high response thresholds are more likely to forage for nectar. There is
an associated genetic component to sucrose response thresholds and forage choice such that bees selected to hoard high quantities
of pollen have low response thresholds and bees selected to hoard low quantities of pollen have higher response thresholds.
The number of larvae in colonies affects the number of bees foraging for pollen. Hexane-extractable compounds from the surface
of larvae (brood pheromone) significantly increase the number of pollen foragers. We tested the hypothesis that brood pheromone
decreases the sucrose response threshold of bees, to suggest a pheromone- modulated sensory-physiological mechanism for regulating
foraging division of labor. Brood pheromone significantly decreased response thresholds as measured in the proboscis extension
response assay, a response associated with pollen foraging. A synthetic blend of honeybee brood pheromone stimulated and released
pollen foraging in foraging bioassays. Synthetic brood pheromone had dose-dependent effects on the modulation of sucrose response
thresholds. We discuss how brood pheromone may act as a releaser of pollen foraging in older bees and a primer pheromone on
the development of response thresholds and foraging ontogeny of young bees.
Received: 24 May 2000 / Revised: 26 September 2000 / Accepted: 15 October 2000 相似文献
14.
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
15.
Bruce J. Eckholm Kirk E. Anderson Milagra Weiss Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2011,65(5):1037-1044
Multiple mating by honeybee queens results in colonies of genotypically diverse workers. Recent studies have demonstrated
that increased genetic diversity within a honeybee colony increases the variation in the frequency of tasks performed by workers.
We show that genotypically diverse colonies, each composed of 20 subfamilies, collect more pollen than do genotypically similar
colonies, each composed of a single subfamily. However, genotypically similar colonies collect greater varieties of pollen
than do genotypically diverse colonies. Further, the composition of collected pollen types is less similar among genotypically
similar colonies than among genotypically diverse colonies. The response threshold model predicts that genotypic subsets of
workers vary in their response to task stimuli. Consistent with this model, our findings suggest that genotypically diverse
colonies likely send out fewer numbers of foragers that independently search for pollen sources (scouts) in response to protein
demand by the colony, resulting in a lower variety of collected pollen types. The cooperative foraging strategy of honeybees
involves a limited number of scouts monitoring the environment that then guide the majority of foragers to high quality food
sources. The genetic composition of the colony appears to play an important role in the efficiency of this behavior. 相似文献
16.
Food quality is a relevant characteristic to be transferred within eusocial insect colonies because its evaluation improves
the collective foraging efficiency. In honeybees, colony mates could directly acquire this resource characteristic during
trophallactic encounters with nectar foragers. In the present study, we focused on the gustatory responsiveness of bees that
have unloaded food from incoming foragers. The sugar sensitivity of receiver bees was assessed in the laboratory by using
the proboscis extension response paradigm. After unloading, hive bees were captured either from a colony that foraged freely
in the environmental surroundings or from a colony that foraged at an artificial feeder with a known sucrose solution. In
the first situation, the sugar sensitivity of the hive bees negatively correlated with the sugar concentration of the nectar
crops brought back by forager mates. Similarly, in the controlled situation, the highest sucrose concentration the receivers
accepted during trophallaxis corresponded to the highest thresholds to sucrose. The results indicate that first-order receivers
modify their sugar sensitivity according to the quality of the food previously transferred through trophallaxis by the incoming
foragers. In addition, trophallaxis is a mechanism capable of transferring gustatory information in honeybees. Its implications
at a social scale might involve changes in the social information as well as in nectar distribution within the colony. 相似文献
17.
Claudia Dreller Robert E. Page Jr. M. Kim Fondrk 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》1999,45(3-4):227-233
Pollen storage in a colony of Apis mellifera is actively regulated by increasing and decreasing pollen foraging according to the “colony's needs.” It has been shown that
nectar foragers indirectly gather information about the nectar supply of the colony from nestmates without estimating the
amount of honey actually stored in the combs. Very little is known about how the actual colony need is perceived with respect
to pollen foraging. Two factors influence the need for pollen: the quantity of pollen stored in cells and the amount of brood.
To elucidate the mechanisms of perception, we changed the environment within normal-sized colonies by adding pollen or young
brood and measured the pollen-foraging activity, while foragers had either direct access to them or not. Our results show
that the amount of stored pollen, young brood, and empty space directly provide important stimuli that affect foraging behavior.
Different mechanisms for forager perception of the change in the environment are discussed.
Received: 13 June 1998 / Accepted after revision: 25 October 1998 相似文献
18.
Ken-ichi Harano Akiko Mitsuhata-Asai Takayuki Konishi Takashi Suzuki Masami Sasaki 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2013,67(7):1169-1178
Upon leaving the hive, foragers carry a small amount of honey, which they subsequently consume to generate energy for flight. We investigated the relationship between waggle-phase duration and crop volume in foragers (both dancers and dance followers) leaving the hive. Our findings indicate that these variables were positively correlated in the two types of bee, suggesting that they were able to adjust the amount of food that they carry depending on the distance to a food source. We also found that dance followers left the hive with a larger amount of honey than dancers. We suggest two possible explanations: (1) dance followers have less information about the location of the food source than dancers, who have a better knowledge of the surrounding area; or (2) honeybees lack a precise calibration method for estimating energy needs from waggle-run duration. The effect of foraging experience was confirmed: bees decreased their honey load at departure with repeated trips to a sugar-syrup feeder. Honeybees showed a different pattern of change when the feeder provided soybean flour as a pollen substitute, possibly because honeybees use honey not only as an energy source but also as “glue” to form “balls” of pollen on their hind legs. Based on our observations that followers of sugar-syrup foragers carry a different amount of honey in their crop than followers of soybean-followers, we suggest that waggle dancers also convey information concerning food type. 相似文献
19.
Tanya Pankiw Robert E. Page Jr M. Kim Fondrk 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》1998,44(3):193-198
Foraging and the mechanisms that regulate the quantity of food collected are important evolutionary and ecological attributes
for all organisms. The decision to collect pollen by honey bee foragers depends on the number of larvae (brood), amount of
stored pollen in the colony, as well as forager genotype and available resources in the environment. Here we describe how
brood pheromone (whole hexane extracts of larvae) influenced honey bee pollen foraging and test the predictions of two foraging-regulation
hypotheses: the indirect or brood-food mechanism and the direct mechanism of pollen-foraging regulation. Hexane extracts of
larvae containing brood pheromone stimulated pollen foraging. Colonies were provided with extracts of 1000 larvae (brood pheromone),
1000 larvae (brood), or no brood or pheromone. Colonies with brood pheromone and brood had similar numbers of pollen foragers,
while those colonies without brood or pheromone had significantly fewer pollen foragers. The number of pollen foragers increased
more than 2.5-fold when colonies were provided with extracts of 2000 larvae as a supplement to the 1000 larvae they already
had. Within 1 h of presenting colonies with brood pheromone, pollen foragers responded to the stimulus. The results from this
study demonstrate some important aspects of pollen foraging in honey bee colonies: (1) pollen foragers appear to be directly
affected by brood pheromone, (2) pollen foraging can be stimulated with brood pheromone in colonies provided with pollen but
no larvae, and (3) pollen forager numbers increase with brood pheromone as a supplement to brood without increasing the number
of larvae in the colony. These results support the direct-stimulus hypothesis for pollen foraging and do not support the indirect-inhibitor,
brood-food hypothesis for pollen-foraging regulation.
Received: 5 March 1998 / Accepted after revision: 29 August 1998 相似文献
20.
Erin E. Wilson-Rankin 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2014,68(7):1151-1161
Social insects often serve as model systems for communication and recruitment studies, and yet, it remains controversial whether social vespid wasps can reliably communicate resource information to nestmates. In this study, I present empirical evidence that foraging strategies depend on the initial assessment of resource size and potential competition by foraging yellowjackets. The context dependent foraging behavior of Vespula pensylvanica provides a potential explanation for the inconsistent reports of the existence of recruitment communication in vespid wasps. Furthermore, life history traits may influence yellowjacket foraging behavior; annual V. pensylvanica colonies, whose foragers routinely patrol near the nest, exhibited increased bait visitation in response to the return of successful foragers, whereas perennial colonies did not. These behavioral disparities provide insight into how foraging strategies and search patterns may shift with colony size and longevity. In experiments that investigate the effects of visual cues of conspecifics and bait dispersion, foraging decisions corresponded with expectations of yellowjackets integrating resource quantity and access into a perception of demand. When resource competition could be assessed as high, V. pensylvanica foragers quickly exploited the bait closest to their colony regardless of occupation by other wasps; however, foragers preferred visiting unoccupied baits in situations where competition could be perceived as low. Moreover, a meta-analysis revealed that context-dependent, cue-mediated recruitment was widespread in Vespidae, where such foraging behaviors changed with habitat and the potential for resource competition. Such plastic foraging strategies may contribute to the invasion success of some vespid wasps. 相似文献