Non-random nectar unloading interactions between foragers and their receivers in the honeybee hive |
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Authors: | Joaquín Goyret Walter M Farina |
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Institution: | (1) Grupo de Estudio de Insectos Sociales, Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular, IFIBYNE-CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Pabellón II, Ciudad Universitaria (C1428EHA), Buenos Aires, Argentina;(2) Present address: Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Coker Life Sciences Building, 700 Sumter Street, Columbia South Carolina, 29208, USA |
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Abstract: | Nectar acquisition in the honeybee Apis mellifera is a partitioned task in which foragers gather nectar and bring it to the hive, where nest mates unload via trophallaxis
(i.e. mouth-to-mouth transfer) the collected food for further storage. Because forager mates exploit different feeding places
simultaneously, this study addresses the question of whether nectar unloading interactions between foragers and hive-bees
are established randomly, as it is commonly assumed. Two groups of foragers were trained to exploit a different scented food
source for 5 days. We recorded their trophallaxes with hive-mates, marking the latter ones according to the forager group
they were unloading. We found non-random probabilities for the occurrence of trophallaxes between experimental foragers and
hive-bees, instead, we found that trophallactic interactions were more likely to involve groups of individuals which had formerly
interacted orally. We propose that olfactory cues present in the transferred nectar promoted the observed bias, and we discuss
this bias in the context of the organization of nectar acquisition: a partitioned task carried out in a decentralized insect
society. |
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Keywords: | |
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