scholarly journals Making honey bees lie: experimental dissociation of flight experience and dance communication

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arumoy Chatterjee ◽  
M.V. Prabhudev ◽  
Ebi A. George ◽  
Pallab Basu ◽  
Axel Brockmann
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bees ◽  
Food Source ◽  
Flight Distance ◽  
Distance Information ◽  
Flight Experience ◽  
Dance Communication ◽  
Memory Contents

AbstractHoney bees use their dance to communicate flight distance and direction of a food source to their nest mates in the hive. How bees transpose flight information to generate a corresponding walking (dance) behavior is still unknown. We now present a detailed study of the changes in dance duration of individual bees after shifting feeder distance. Our experiments indicated that most bees needed two or more foraging trips to the new position before showing an updated dance duration. In addition, only a few bees significantly changed dance duration immediately, whereas most bees first produced intermediary durations. Double shift experiments showed that under certain conditions bees do not update dance duration but continued to perform dance duration for the previously visited feeder position. We propose that generation of dance information involves two memory contents one for newly acquired and one for previously stored distance information.One Sentence SummaryGeneration of dance information is temporally separated from immediate flight experience and involves two different memory contents.

scholarly journals Circadian plasticity in honey bees

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 22-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Beer ◽  
Guy Bloch
Keyword(s):  
Circadian Rhythms ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Current Understanding ◽  
Sun Compass ◽  
Dance Communication ◽  
Support Time ◽  
Compass Navigation

Circadian rhythms of about a day are ubiquitous in animals and considered functionally significant. Honey bees show remarkable circadian plasticity that is related to the complex social organization of their societies. Forager bees show robust circadian rhythms that support time-compensated sun-compass navigation, dance communication and timing visits to flowers. Nest-dwelling nurse bees care for the young brood around the clock. Here, we review our current understanding of the molecular and neuroanatomical mechanisms underlying this remarkable natural plasticity in circadian rhythms.

How honey bees use landmarks to guide their return to a food source

Nature ◽  
1982 ◽  
Vol 295 (5850) ◽  
pp. 560-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. A. Cartwright ◽  
T. S. Collett
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bees ◽  
Food Source

scholarly journals Search behavior of individual foragers involves neurotransmitter systems characteristic for social scouting

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arumoy Chatterjee ◽  
Deepika Bais ◽  
Axel Brockmann ◽  
Divya Ramesh
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bees ◽  
Food Source ◽  
Search Behavior ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Brain State ◽  
Molecular Processes ◽  
Behavioral Specialization ◽  
Expression Of Genes ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Solitary Behavior

SUMMARYBehavioral specialization in honey bees is regulated by hormones and neuromodulators that tune neuronal activity and gene expression, and can be viewed as a temporarily fixed behavioral state associated with a specific brain state. Honey bee scouts, which search for new food sources, show a higher expression of genes involved in glutamate, GABA and catecholamine signaling than recruits that remain loyal to a food source. We asked whether recruits visiting a feeder initiated a search behavior when the feeder was experimentally removed, and if similar neuromodulators might be involved in the initiation and performance of that behavior. We found that recruits perform a relatively stereotyped search behavior that shows inter-individual variation in its intensity. Quantitative single brain mass spectrometric analyses showed that glutamate and GABA titers changed during search behavior supporting the hypothesis that behavioral specialization in social insects is based on reinforcing brain molecular processes involved in solitary behavior.

scholarly journals Search Behavior of Individual Foragers Involves Neurotransmitter Systems Characteristic for Social Scouting

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arumoy Chatterjee ◽  
Deepika Bais ◽  
Axel Brockmann ◽  
Divya Ramesh
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bees ◽  
Gaba Receptors ◽  
Food Source ◽  
Brain Area ◽  
Search Behavior ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Mass Spectrometric Measurement ◽  
Catecholaminergic System ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Solitary Behavior

In honey bees search behavior occurs as social and solitary behavior. In the context of foraging, searching for food sources is performed by behavioral specialized foragers, the scouts. When the scouts have found a new food source, they recruit other foragers (recruits). These recruits never search for a new food source on their own. However, when the food source is experimentally removed, they start searching for that food source. Our study provides a detailed description of this solitary search behavior and the variation of this behavior among individual foragers. Furthermore, mass spectrometric measurement showed that the initiation and performance of this solitary search behavior is associated with changes in glutamate, GABA, histamine, aspartate, and the catecholaminergic system in the optic lobes and central brain area. These findings strikingly correspond with the results of an earlier study that showed that scouts and recruits differ in the expression of glutamate and GABA receptors. Together, the results of both studies provide first clear support for the hypothesis that behavioral specialization in honey bees is based on adjusting modulatory systems involved in solitary behavior to increase the probability or frequency of that behavior.

Fermentation of a Pollen Substitute Diet with Beebread Microorganisms Increases Diet Consumption and Hemolymph Protein Levels of Honey Bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae)

Sociobiology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 760 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joyce Mayra Volpini Almeida Dias ◽  
Michelle Manfrini Morais ◽  
Thiago Mauricio Francoy ◽  
Rogério Aparecido Pereira ◽  
Aline Patricia Turcatto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bees ◽  
Nutritional Value ◽  
Food Source ◽  
Survival Rates ◽  
Natural Food ◽  
Protein Levels ◽  
Hemolymph Protein ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Bee Colonies ◽  
Artificial Protein

Pollen substitute diets have become increasingly important for maintaining strong and healthy honey bee colonies. Palatability and nutritional value are key attributes of a good diet. Since beebread, which is pollen fermented by the bees, is the main food of the worker nurse bees that feed and care for the bee larvae, pollen substitutes should have similar attributes. In an attempt to simulate this natural food source, an inoculum prepared from beebread was used to ferment a pollen-substitute diet. Newly emerged bees were fed on the diets for seven days. They consumed significantly more fermented than unfermented diet. Hemolymph protein levels were significantly higher in bees that had been fed a fermented versus an unfermented diet, though still significantly lower than in bees fed on beebread. Vitellogenin (a key storage protein for honey bees) levels were also increased significantly in bees fed the fermented versus the non-fermented diet. Survival rates were higher for bees fed the fermented versus the non-fermented diet, though the difference was not significant. We conclude that fermentation by beebread-derived microorganisms can improve the acceptance and utility of an artificial protein diet for honey bees.

scholarly journals Follower Position Does Not Affect Waggle Dance Information Transfer

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parry M. Kietzman ◽  
P. Kirk Visscher
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bee ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Information Transfer ◽  
Food Source ◽  
Waggle Dance

It is known that the honey bee waggle dance communicates the distance and direction of some item of interest, most commonly a food source, to nestmates. Previous work suggests that, in order to successfully acquire the information contained in a dance, other honey bees must follow the dancer from behind. We revisit this topic using updated methodology, including a greater distance from the hive to the feeder, which produced longer, more easily-read dances. Our results are not congruent with those of earlier work, and we did not conclude that honey bees must follow a dancer from behind in order to obtain the dance information. Rather, it is more likely that a follower can successfully acquire a dance’s information regardless of where she may be located about a dancer.

The spatial precision of the honey bees' dance communication

1988 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
William F. Towne ◽  
James L. Gould
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bees ◽  
Dance Communication
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