scholarly journals A Multiscale Review of Behavioral Variation in Collective Foraging Behavior in Honey Bees

Insects ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie J. Lemanski ◽  
Chelsea N. Cook ◽  
Brian H. Smith ◽  
Noa Pinter-Wollman
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Foraging Behavior ◽  
Collective Behavior ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Model System ◽  
Bee Foraging ◽  
Collective Foraging ◽  
The Impact

The emergence of collective behavior from local interactions is a widespread phenomenon in social groups. Previous models of collective behavior have largely overlooked the impact of variation among individuals within the group on collective dynamics. Honey bees (Apis mellifera) provide an excellent model system for exploring the role of individual differences in collective behavior due to their high levels of individual variation and experimental tractability. In this review, we explore the causes and consequences of individual variation in behavior for honey bee foraging across multiple scales of organization. We summarize what is currently known about the genetic, developmental, and neurophysiological causes of individual differences in learning and memory among honey bees, as well as the consequences of this variation for collective foraging behavior and colony fitness. We conclude with suggesting promising future directions for exploration of the genetic and physiological underpinnings of individual differences in behavior in this model system.

scholarly journals Individual learning phenotypes drive collective behavior

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (30) ◽  
pp. 17949-17956 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chelsea N. Cook ◽  
Natalie J. Lemanski ◽  
Thiago Mosqueiro ◽  
Cahit Ozturk ◽  
Jürgen Gadau ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Honey Bee ◽  
Collective Behavior ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Learning Behavior ◽  
Collective Foraging ◽  
Familiar Stimuli ◽  
Bee Colonies

Individual differences in learning can influence how animals respond to and communicate about their environment, which may nonlinearly shape how a social group accomplishes a collective task. There are few empirical examples of how differences in collective dynamics emerge from variation among individuals in cognition. Here, we use a naturally variable and heritable learning behavior called latent inhibition (LI) to show that interactions among individuals that differ in this cognitive ability drive collective foraging behavior in honey bee colonies. We artificially selected two distinct phenotypes: high-LI bees that ignore previously familiar stimuli in favor of novel ones and low-LI bees that learn familiar and novel stimuli equally well. We then provided colonies differentially composed of different ratios of these phenotypes with a choice between familiar and novel feeders. Colonies of predominantly high-LI individuals preferred to visit familiar food locations, while low-LI colonies visited novel and familiar food locations equally. Interestingly, in colonies of mixed learning phenotypes, the low-LI individuals showed a preference to visiting familiar feeders, which contrasts with their behavior when in a uniform low-LI group. We show that the shift in feeder preference of low-LI bees is driven by foragers of the high-LI phenotype dancing more intensely and attracting more followers. Our results reveal that cognitive abilities of individuals and their social interactions, which we argue relate to differences in attention, drive emergent collective outcomes.

OLFACTORY REPELLENCY OF HERBICIDES TO FORAGING HONEY BEES (HYMENOPTERA: APIDAE)

1979 ◽  
Vol 111 (10) ◽  
pp. 1131-1135 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.H. Elliott ◽  
D. Cmiralova ◽  
W.G. Wellington
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bee ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Foraging Behaviour ◽  
Honey Production ◽  
Brood Development ◽  
Bee Foraging ◽  
Honey Bee Foraging ◽  
The Impact

AbstractForaging honey bees were offered various sucrose–herbicide solutions. Despite the visual attractiveness of the feeding dishes to foragers, six of seven herbicides significantly reduced the incidence of feeding and were judged to be olfactory and gustatory repellents. The most repellent herbicide was 2,4,5-T, which totally inhibited feeding at concentrations as tow as 1000 ppm. The next most repellent was 2,4-DB, followed by linuron, picloram, 2,4-D, and monuron. Paraquat was the only herbicide that did not exhibit marked repellency at concentrations up to 4000 ppm.The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the impact of herbicide applications on honey bee foraging behaviour, brood development, pollination, and honey production.

scholarly journals The effect of individual learning on collective foraging in honey bees in complex environments

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie J. Lemanski ◽  
Chelsea N. Cook ◽  
Cahit Ozturk ◽  
Brian H. Smith ◽  
Noa Pinter-Wollman
Keyword(s):  
Collective Behavior ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Individual Learning ◽  
Centralized Control ◽  
Complex Environments ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Complex Decision Making ◽  
Complex Decision ◽  
Collective Foraging ◽  
Resource Patches

AbstractThe trade-off between exploiting known resources and exploring for new ones is a complex decision-making challenge, particularly when resource patches are variable in quality and heterogeneously distributed in the landscape. Social insect colonies navigate this challenge, in the absence of centralized control, by allocating different individuals to each of these tasks based on variation in individual behavior. To investigate how heritable differences in individual learning affect a colony’s collective ability to locate and choose among different quality food resources, we develop an agent based model and test its predictions using two genetic lines of honey bees, selected for differences in their learning behavior. Here we show that, paradoxically, colonies containing individuals that are better at learning to ignore unrewarding stimuli are worse at choosing the highest quality resource at the collective level. This work highlights the importance of individual variation within groups on the emergence of collective behavior.

scholarly journals Environment dependent benefits of individual differences in the recruitment behaviour of honey bees

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Supraja Rajagopal ◽  
Axel Brockmann ◽  
Ebi Antony George
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Response Probability ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Eusocial Insects ◽  
Bee Foraging ◽  
Honey Bee Foraging ◽  
Response Thresholds

Inter-individual differences in behaviour within the members of a social group can affect the group's productivity. In eusocial insects, individual differences amongst workers in a colony play a central role division of labour and task allocation. Extensive empirical and theoretical work has highlighted variation in response thresholds as a proximate mechanism underlying individual behavioural differences and hence division of labour. However, other response parameters, like response probability and intensity, can affect these differences. In this study, we first extended a previously published agent-based model on honey bee foraging to understand the relative importance of response (dance) probability and response (dance) intensity in the task of recruitment. Comparing variation obtained from the simulations with previously published empirical data, we found that response intensity plays a more important role than probability in producing consistent inter-individual differences in recruitment behaviour. We then explored the benefits provided by this individual variation in recruitment behaviour to the colony's collective foraging effort under different environmental conditions. Our results revealed that individual variation leads to a greater energetic yield per forager, but only when food is abundant. Our study highlights the need to consider all response parameters while studying division of labour and adds to the growing body of evidence linking individual variation in behavioural responses to the success of social groups.

scholarly journals Toxicity of fungicides to honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and their effects on bee foraging behavior, pollen viability and fruit set on blooming apples and pears

1999 ◽  
Vol 5 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
D. R. Mayer ◽  
G. Kovács
Keyword(s):  
Apis Mellifera ◽  
Honey Bee ◽  
Foraging Behavior ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Fruit Set ◽  
Pollen Viability ◽  
Bee Foraging

Fungicides fosetyl-AL, triadimefon, dodine, mycobutanil and fenarimol were tested for honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) mortality and effect on bee foraging, pollen viability and fruit set in blooming apple and pear. None of the materials were toxic to honey bees or reduced pollen gemination or fruit set.  

Language Contact and Language Attrition

2019 ◽  
pp. 313-328
Author(s):  
Claudia Maria Riehl
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
External Factors ◽  
Language Awareness ◽  
Language Attrition ◽  
Bilingual Communities ◽  
Key Terms ◽  
The Impact

This chapter focuses on language contact phenomena typical in language attrition processes. It starts from the assumption that language contact is a bilingual practice reflecting the processing/use of language in a bilingual speaker’s repertoire. Defining key terms such as borrowing, transference, and convergence, the chapter addresses typical language contact phenomena in various language attrition settings such as lexical transference, processes of semantical restructuring, syntactic transference/convergence, morphological/phonological transfer. The chapter discusses aspects of pragmatic convergence, that is, the adoption of L2-discourse marking systems. It demonstrates that despite much individual variation there are some phenomena which typically occur in different speakers and different communities of attriters independently, that is, L1 lexemes adopting L2 meaning, instances of pivot matching, and the adoption of turn-related discourse markers. Finally, the impact of external factors, such as language awareness, attitude, and norm-orientation in bilingual communities that explain individual differences in attriters, is discussed.

The challenge of accounting for individual differences in folk-economic beliefs

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin C. Ruisch ◽  
Rajen A. Anderson ◽  
David A. Pizarro
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
Economic Beliefs ◽  
Existing Data

AbstractWe argue that existing data on folk-economic beliefs (FEBs) present challenges to Boyer & Petersen's model. Specifically, the widespread individual variation in endorsement of FEBs casts doubt on the claim that humans are evolutionarily predisposed towards particular economic beliefs. Additionally, the authors' model cannot account for the systematic covariance between certain FEBs, such as those observed in distinct political ideologies.

Inter-individual variation shapes the human microbiome

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily F. Wissel ◽  
Leigh K. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Human Microbiome ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Microbiota Composition ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Microbiome Research

Abstract The target article suggests inter-individual variability is a weakness of microbiota-gut-brain (MGB) research, but we discuss why it is actually a strength. We comment on how accounting for individual differences can help researchers systematically understand the observed variance in microbiota composition, interpret null findings, and potentially improve the efficacy of therapeutic treatments in future clinical microbiome research.

The Need to Belong and the Relationship Between Loneliness and Health

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 194-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Freda-Marie Hartung ◽  
Britta Renner
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
First Year ◽  
Health State ◽  
Need To Belong ◽  
First Year University ◽  
Perceived Social Isolation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Humans are social animals; consequently, a lack of social ties affects individuals’ health negatively. However, the desire to belong differs between individuals, raising the question of whether individual differences in the need to belong moderate the impact of perceived social isolation on health. In the present study, 77 first-year university students rated their loneliness and health every 6 weeks for 18 weeks. Individual differences in the need to belong were found to moderate the relationship between loneliness and current health state. Specifically, lonely students with a high need to belong reported more days of illness than those with a low need to belong. In contrast, the strength of the need to belong had no effect on students who did not feel lonely. Thus, people who have a strong need to belong appear to suffer from loneliness and become ill more often, whereas people with a weak need to belong appear to stand loneliness better and are comparatively healthy. The study implies that social isolation does not impact all individuals identically; instead, the fit between the social situation and an individual’s need appears to be crucial for an individual’s functioning.

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