Modeling and analysis of nest-site selection by honeybee swarms: the speed and accuracy trade-off |
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Authors: | Kevin M Passino Thomas D Seeley |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ohio State University, 2015 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA;(2) Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA |
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Abstract: | Nest-site selection in honeybees is a process of social decision making in which the scout bees in a swarm locate several
potential nest sites, evaluate them, and select the best one by means of competitive signaling. We develop a model of this
process and validate that the model possesses the key features of the bees' decision-making process, as revealed by prior
empirical studies. Next, we use the model to study the “design” of the nest-site selection process, with a focus on how certain
behavioral parameters have been tuned by natural selection to achieve a balance between speed and accuracy. First, we study
the effects of the quorum threshold and the dance decay rate. We show that evolution seems to have settled on values for these
two parameters that seek a balance between speed and accuracy of decision making by minimizing the time needed to achieve
a consensus and maximizing the probability that the best site is chosen. Second, we study the adaptive tuning of the tendency
of bees to explore for vs be recruited to a site. We show that this tendency appears to be tuned to regulate the positive
feedback process of recruitment to ensure both a reasonably rapid choice and a low probability of a poor choice. Finally we
show that the probability of choosing the best site is proportional to its quality, but that this proportionality depends
on its quality relative to other discovered sites.
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Keywords: | Apis mellifera Honeybee Nest-site selection Social decision making |
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